| In 2003, the first Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Committee on Disaster Management Meeting established a framework for ASEAN-US cooperation on the Disaster Management Program, with a focus on capability building for the Incident Command System (ICS). The ICS was subsequently adapted to be part of the on-scene disaster response system in the Republic of the Philippines with the enactment of the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act in 2010. This study aims to investigate the process of adapting the ICS, its current status, and future issues through interview surveys of national and local governments in the Philippines. First, the process of adapting and implementing the ICS as the national disaster response system is investigated. Second, the urrent status of the ICS at the local government level is surveyed in a flood-prone area of the Pampanga River basin in central Luzon. The results show that the ICS has been adapted to all levels of government: national, regional, provincial, municipal, and barangay (the country’s smallest administrative division). Each level of local government has incorporated the ICS into its contingency plan. Finally, several issues related to future disaster management planning and capacity building are pointed out. |
