AS PART of its corporate social responsibility, the Aboitiz Group launched a disaster risk reduction lecture series for teachers.

Aboitiz Foundation — the corporate social responsibility arm of the Aboitiz Group — partnered with City Savings Bank, Pilmico and Aboitiz Construction for the DRR 101 training for 1,200 public school teachers under the Department of Education.

DRR 101 is a two-day virtual training designed to strengthen the culture of preparedness and resiliency of teachers in different regions nationwide.

The lecture series started last June and will run until September. Participants are from Regions 1, 2, 3, 4-A, 4-B, 5, and 10.

The first batch of training sessions kicked off in Lipa and Biñan City in Region 4-A and in Calapan and Oriental Mindoro in Region 4-B where more than 90 educators and DRR coordinators participated.

Aboitiz Foundation invited speakers from the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, Department of Environment and Natural Resources – Mines and Geosciences Bureau, Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation and WeatherNews. The lecture topics include volcanic eruption, earthquakes and faults from PHIVOLCS; geologic hazards such as landslides and floods from DENR-MGB; weather and tropical cyclones from WeatherNews; and public service continuity orientation from PDRF.

“As teachers and DRR coordinators, you have been given the twin responsibility of ensuring service continuity, and teaching about disaster preparedness to young people. In service continuity, just like running an organization or a business, you need to be prepared for critical service disruptions and you must be able to pursue your school’s disaster recovery plan. Moreover, it will be through you that we are able to teach the young of the value of being disaster prepared and resilient. And you do these even when you yourselves are also facing difficult moments. Kaya’t saludo po kami sa mga guro. Saludo po kami sa DepEd,” Aboitiz Foundation President and COO Maribeth Marasigan said.

City Savings Bank AVP for Reputation and Brand Management Head Paula V. Ruelan said that her company has been actively providing training for Filipino teachers.

“Preparedness is a part of the effort to anticipate and manage disaster and mitigate risks and together, we hope to build disaster resilience within the DepEd community,” Ruelan said.