THE threat of tsunami occurring in Dagupan City is real on account of recent recorded movements of the Manila Trench.

This was disclosed Wednesday by Mayor Belen Fernandez who said representatives of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) recently came to Dagupan twice to coordinate with city officials about necessary precautionary measures in anticipation of a possible tsunami that can be triggered from the Manila Trench.

This after a 6.3 magnitude earthquake, whose epicenter was in Calatagan, Batangas, struck last June 15, and which was traced to have been caused by the movement of the Manila Trench, a potentially dangerous earthquake fault that runs from north to south, west of Luzon.

Another earthquake of 4.8 magnitude hit last July 6, whose epicenter was off Palauig, Zambales, near the Manila Trench.

Phivolcs had installed years back an intensity meter in Dagupan City, located at the Public Alert Response and Monitoring Center ay the City Engineering Compound, and tsunami warning systems in Bonuan and other coastal barangays of Pangasinan.

With the annual budget of Dagupan City still in limbo the city will be helpless in case tsunami occurs, Fernandez told newsmen during a media forum at USATV Kabaleyan Channel, Wednesday night.

She said the annual budget contained appropriations for the purchase of equipment, including two rescue trucks to transport evacuees from their homes to high rise evacuation centers and for delivery of food and materials to evacuation centers.

Fernandez said she already ordered the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office to conduct tsunami drills in Dagupan’s 31 barangays and the reactivation of Privately-hosted Evacuation Centers (PHEC) that designates high-rise establishments and houses to host their neighbors at risk from an oncoming tsunami.

The CDRRMC headed by Ronald de Guzman I has been tasked to visit high-rise establishments to inform their owners about the PHEC program of the city government.

One of the high-rise buildings visited  by CDRRMC was the Universidad de Dagupan on Arellano Street. Mayor Fernandez joined the visit.

Fernandez rued that the proposed annual budget during her previous term appropriated funds for the construction of an evacuation center in Bonuan Boquig and in Barangay Pugaro but these were realigned for another item. (Leonardo Micua)

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