Disaster Risk Profile

Parañaque Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (PDRRMC) Chairperson and City Mayor Florencio Bernabe, Jr. mobilized the various divisions of the PDRRMC as well as vital departments in the city government organization on Monday August 6, 2012 following alerts by the weather bureau for continuous southwest monsoon rains. Put on disaster management duty were the Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office which coordinated evacuation and rescue efforts; the City Health Office which attended to the health needs of the evacuees; Parañaque DSWD which supplied food and clean water in evacuation centers and distributed relief goods in affected communities. The Public Information Office which kept the citizens updated by way of its “text blast." DepEd-Parañaque offered public schools as evacuation centers.As a safety precaution, the local chief executive suspended classes in all levels from August 7 to 10, 2012. “We mobilized the various divisions that make up the PDRRMC and offices in our local government organizational structure that have been delegated disaster preparedness and response functions at the first indications that the country will be in for big rains so that we can mitigate risks, if not totally prevent injuries, deaths and damages to properties and infrastructures. As prior preparation, we invested on special equipment like our 2 “Spider” backhoe excavators; a “Vactor” drainage/sewer vacuum; and a river dredging equipment and with these, we regularly cleared our waterways of debris and widened creeks as necessary; removed sludge and trash from drainage; and removed silt from the Parañaque River. Our disaster awareness campaign also contributed to the effort.”, Mayor Jun Bernabe said. 

        Brief History of Parañaque

The city of Parañaque is one of the cities found in Metro Manila. The town of Parañaque was actually founded in the year 1572. Parañaque was discovered by Spanish missionaries as Palanyag. The town shortly fell under the authority of the Augustinians 2 years later. Parañaque lived nearby the sea, so the early peoples source of living would be by fishing. The government before was actually composed of Cabeza de Barangays. They were the ones in charge of handling all the demands of the Spaniards. The education during the Spanish period was only given to the principalia class because they were the only ones who could afford it. In 1572 it said"Parañaque was said to be bounded by Ermita on the north and Cavite on the south." Parañaque was already divided when the Spaniards arrived. Parañaque was so big that communication with the government would be hard. There was this this Spaniard whenever he came to this certain land he kept saying "para na aqui" to the driver of the calesa he was riding. But the driver did not understand him because he was speaking spanish so he thought the placed was called "ParaNaAqui." So everytime the driver goes there he kept calling the place "Paranaaqui" and eventually the place was called Parañaque. During the American period, Parañaque became one of the first municipalities in Metro Manila.

Terms used: 

Cavite is a part of Parañaque. thats why Cavite came from the term "kakabit" because it was like attached to Parañaque. Bacoor came from the word "Bakod" or wall because of the wall that seperates it from Parañaque. Zapote came from the word "Sapoti" which means to cheat because of the people from Zapote who cheated the people of Parañaque. Las Piñas came from the word "pillas" because it because they tore-off their land from Parañaque and made their own.
 And the city Pasay came from the word "palay" 
which is a plant where you can get food from.