Officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) met with representatives of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and discussed measures to improve the country's disaster response.
DPWH Senior Undersecretary Emil K. Sadain said the discussions focused on the implementation of the JICA-grant – Technical Cooperation Project (TCP) on Road Disaster Preventions and Other Countermeasures on Mountainous Roads in the Philippines.

photo: DPWH
“Numerous roads in the mountainous areas of the Philippines become impassable each year as a result of large-scale road disasters and landslides caused by strong typhoons and earthquakes. This project is relevant and timely as this has given way for us to address the needs of the country in infrastructure management,” said Sadain.
Sadain said the third joint coordinating meeting is a progress assessment of the ongoing implementation of the project in pilot areas of Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), Regions 7 and 11.
Among those discussed and explored were emergency response, hazard mapping and Road Disaster Information Management.
The meeting was held at the DPWH Central Office and attended by Sadain; JICA-TCP chairman; Kinoshita Akito, second secretary of the Embassy of Japan in the Philippines; Fukui Keisuke; Kinoshita Akito, JICA Philippines Senior Representative; Constante A. Llanes, Jr, JICA-TCP Project Manager; and, Medmier G. Malig. (Trixee Rosel)