MINERVA BC NEWMAN
CEBU CITY – PLDT Inc. and its wireless unit Smart Communications Inc. (Smart) partners with the Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation (PDRF) to bring Project Ligtas to calamity-prone communities in VisMin.
Project Ligtas is part of the #SafeandSmart advocacy of the PLDT Group that promotes preparedness and immediate response through continuous availability of communication services, mobile solutions, and activities to help mitigate risks.
Each PLDT-Smart Ligtas Kit contains a power station, solar panel, rechargeable handy megaphone, crank radio, rechargeable flashlight, satellite phone, Smart LTE pocket Wi-Fi with initial load, smartphone, and whistles.
The municipalities of Madridejos, Bantayan, and Santa Fe in Cebu Province, Siquijor Province, and Ormoc City are part of the 11 disaster response teams in VisMin that received one Ligtas Kit each that comes with a workshop to fully equip the responders.
“As a disaster-prone city, it is one of our priorities to improve our resilience during calamities, and this kit is a helpful tool to make that happen,” Ciriaco Tolibao II, Head of Ormoc City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (DRRMO) said.
The PLDT-Smat Group also provided Ligtas kits to communities affected by Super Typhoon Odette, including the Province of Surigao del Norte and the municipalities of Pilar and Dapa.
Genevie Sumaylo, a responder from Pilar DRRMO said that the Ligtas Kit is a great aid to the DRRM Office as they can now quickly respond to any emergencies and communicate with the responders on the ground. “We’re grateful to PLDT and Smart for the programs they extended to Siargao Island,” she added.
PLDT and Smart also enable various organizations’ emergency warnings through Smart Infocast, a web-based text-broadcasting solution that enables LGUs to easily broadcast messages within their communities more efficiently.
Cagayan de Oro City, Tagum City, and Datu Odin Sinsuat in Mindanao are also among the LGUs that are now better equipped to continue responding to the communities they serve.
With the Visayas and Mindanao (VisMin) area getting its fair share of calamities, disaster resilience has become one of the top priorities of local government units there thus, PLDT and Smart reinforce government efforts through technology and communications support.
