2009 Philippine Institute of Civil Engineers (PICE) NATIONAL MIDYEAR CONVENTION

By Margaret Macatol

P
consulting the

rimary and leading PICE members of 96 chapters belonging to foremost government departments, agencies,

agencies and offices, construction companies; firms; colleges and well known

universities from all over the country, ranging from Cagayan down to Sulu were festively invited to participate the Midyear Event last June 25-27, 2009 at Bacolod City, Pavillion Resort Hotel. Hosted by the PICE Negros Occidental Chapter, the affiliates carefully carried on all the preparations upon assuring the presence of all co-PICE delegates during the Midyear

Convention and truly made their experience a beneficial and memorable one by supporting the National Board of Directors, the Convention Bureau and the Events Bureau of the National Secretariat. Undoubtedly, the red carpet was alluring rolled out during the occasion. Xavier University with great pride and honor is also very proud to proclaim that their very own Engr. Dexter S. Los paper and abstract entitled The Disaster Risk Mapping of Barangay Carmen: Flood and Fire was accepted by the Inter-Specialty Group for convention. He valiantly presented his paper during the much anticipated event. Engr. Lo is a Cum Laude graduate of Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Xavier University and earned his Master Degree of Science in Civil Engineering at De La Salle University. He is currently the Head Supervisor of the XU Engineering Resource Center (XU ERC), the research and social outreach arm of the College of Engineering in Xavier University - Ateneo de Cagayan. He is also an active member of various professional organizations serving as Region-10 Chair for the Association of Structural Engineers of the Philippines (ASEP); Member of the Board of Directors for the Philippine Institute of Civil Engineers (PICE Misamis Oriental-CDO Chapter); Ad hoc Region-X Director for the Association of Civil 1

Engineering Educators of the Philippines (ACEEP); and Disaster Mitigation and Preparedness Strategies (DMAPS) Task Force Volunteer. Engr. Lo stated, The main objective of the project is to generate Disaster Risk Maps due to the common floods and fire usually occurring in Barangay Carmen. Barangay Carmen is currently experiencing rapid urbanization with exponential population growth, bullish infrastructure increase and not to mention its greatly significant function to the region. However, these developments may also trigger negative impacts especially at the event of a disaster, unless constantly monitored and assessed. In addition he also added, Through these maps a graphic representation of the critical areas within Barangay Carmen may be clearly viewed in order to assess the level of risk against flooding and fire. These maps can aid both city and barangay officials and planners in assessing the suitability of proposed programs and infrastructures. It will also be very useful in mitigation and preparedness strategies upon reducing the harmful impacts of disasters. The identified high risk sites for flood have been validated by recent historical January 2009 Cagayan de Oro floods. The high risk sites for fire are identified to have structures with no defined road access, dominantly made from combustible materials and closely built to one another.