Team from Bangladesh studying BARMM’s calamity, disaster contingencies

COTABATO CITY — Officials from Bangladesh were briefed by experts in the Bangsamoro government on their “best practices” in calamity and disaster reaction operations during a dialogue in Cotabato City on Monday.

The activity was facilitated by the World Food Program that has projects in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

The visiting officials from Bangladesh, led by their cabinet secretary on coordination and reforms, Mahmudul Hossain Khan, were briefed extensively on the BARMM government’s calamity and disaster response operations and mitigation thrusts by personnel of the Bangsamoro Rapid Emergency Action on Disaster Incidence, or READi contingent, comprised of rapid deployment emergency reaction teams.

The Bangsamoro READi has trained emergency responders equipped with ambulances and high-speed rescue boats that can be mobilized anytime in the six provinces and three cities in the autonomous region.

Khan and his compatriots from Bangladesh were lectured by representatives of the Bangsamoro READi, led by the lawyer Hamad Abas, on the potential disaster and calamity hazards in the autonomous region, its population and socio-cultural and geographical settings.

Bangsamoro READi officials also explained to them, during their meeting at the BARMM capitol,how the Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office responded to the Typhoon "Paeng" onslaught in parts of Maguindanao del Norte and Maguindanao del Sur provinces in late 2022.

A number of villagers in both provinces perished in rampaging floods and landslides the typhoon had caused then.

“We appreciate this engagement and we are thankful to the BARMM for this,” Khan had told the Bangsamoro READi officials during the meeting.

Khan's team had also learned about the Bangsamoro government’s anticipatory and responsive emergency and social protection programs meant to mitigate the effects of calamities and disaster.