Last October 3 to 8, 2014, in Guiuan, Eastern Samar, PRRM’s training team on community-based disaster risk reduction and management (CBDRRM) facilitated a Training of Trainers (ToT) on Disaster Risk Reduction, Climate Change Adaptation and Local Development Planning to the staff of the International Organization of Migration (IOM). IOM is currently doing relief and immediate recovery work in the Yolanda-devastated areas through provision of temporary-transition shelters, capacity building of communities in disaster risk reduction, and camp management and evacuation, among others.

​​Twenty-six staff from both IOM hubs in Guiuan, Eastern Samar, and Tacloban, Leyte, actively participated in the capacity building activity. They took part in the orientation and discussion sessions on climate change and its relation to weather-induced disasters; various risk assessment tools to determine community hazards, vulnerabilities and capacities; steps and processes in formulating a community-based contingency plan; and the integration of disaster risk reduction in local development plans. These were complemented by further discussions on the legal framework of integrating disaster preparedness, prevention and mitigation, response, recovery and rehabilitation in official barangay development plans.

The training team was composed of PRRM President Isagani R. Serrano, Dr. Sharon Taylor, Raymundo C. Agaton, Jr., Charlie Razo, Nilo V. Manangan, and Nappy R. Manegdeg.

Last 29 August, 2014, Coca-Cola Foundation Philippines, Inc. (CCFPI), and PRRM forged a partnership to develop and implement safe water supply systems in rural communities. Present during the signing ceremony were CCFPI President Cecille Alcantara, CCFPI Program Officer-Environment Monina Pacheco, PRRM President Isagani R. Serrano, Vice President and Field Operations Director Marlon P. Palomo, PPCO Director Carla S. Santos, and Supervising Project Engineer, Crispin Tria.

The first engagement of PRRM with the CCFPI was during the coastal clean up in 2011 in the municipality of Samal in Bataan province where Coke employees participated in the annual coastal clean up activity and planted mangrove propagules along Manila Bay’s shoreline. The second engagement was through the Earth Day Network Philippines, Inc. (EDNPI) and the Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation, Inc. (AIDFI) in the Agos Hydraulic Ram Pump Water Project in the upland village of Lower Poblacion, Kasibu, Nueva Vizcaya.

Part of CCFPI’s corporate citizenship commitment in the country is to revert to nature and to rural communities the water it uses for manufacturing its products. For this initial phase, five sites were identified: Brgy. Sibalew in Banga, Aklan; Brgy. Gigoso in Giporlos, Eastern Samar; Brgy. Dancalan in Paracale, Camarines Norte; Brgy. Del Pilar in Baao, Camarines Sur; and Brgy. General Luna in Carranglan, Nueva Ecija.