This study aimed to propose a disaster communication plan for Higher Education Institutions of the Province of Occidental Mindoro. Specifically, the study has the following study objectives:

This study was anchored in the Theory of Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication (CERC) of Reynolds and Seeger in 2005. Reynolds and Seeger suggested that this five-stage theory was merged for public safety practices and mature areas of risk and crisis communication addressing crisis development and disaster management. It was designed to build capacity for public health safety practitioners and disaster managers. It has been used repeatedly to address disasters and public health crises such as Bird flu, Ebola, uranium exposures, chemical spills, humanitarian emergencies such as the 9/11 bombing and the 2001 Anthrax terrorist attack, and calamities such as typhoons (Thomas et al., 2016).

The Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication model is a tool that will help communicators manage complex events (Veil, 2008) as it is categorized into five stages: pre-crisis, initial event, maintenance, resolution, and evaluation. Each stage provides a broad set of strategies and suggestions for communication. It further discusses who should be seen as the most exigent public at each stage and the types of messages that should be directed to these groups.

The study used a mixed-method research design, which is a methodology involving the collection, analysis, and integration of both quantitative and qualitative research in a single study or a longitudinal program of inquiry (Creswell, 2007). The purpose of this form of research is that both qualitative and quantitative research, in combination, provide a better understanding of a research problem or an issue than either of the research approaches alone. Generally, the advantages of one type of data often mitigate the disadvantages of the other.

The study was conducted in the Province of Occidental Mindoro, Philippines, situated in the MIMAROPA region. The Province of Occidental Mindoro is a disaster-vulnerable community with its development geography facing poverty and climate change. It is situated in the western part of Mindoro Island with all of its 11 municipalities situated along the coastlines of the West Philippine Sea. With this, storm surges, strong typhoons, and frequent flooding have caused damages/losses to lives and properties, education, agriculture, and infrastructure in the province (Provincial Development Plan of Occidental Mindoro, 2014).

Occidental Mindoro, being part of the Philippines, is always vulnerable to different types of disasters, and there is an imminent need for effective disaster communication strategies for the HEIs in the province. To clearly show the vulnerability of stakeholders to different types of disasters and the immediate demand for effective disaster communication strategies for the HEIs in the province, Figures 1–4 show the susceptibility maps of the Province of Occidental Mindoro in terms of the flood, landslide, storm surge, and earth movement due to the presence of fault line (PDRRMO, 2014).

The study focused on the 10 Higher Education Institutions of Occidental Mindoro, namely as follows: Occidental Mindoro State College (OMSC) and its six campuses situated throughout different municipalities in the province, namely, campuses of Labangan, San Jose, Murtha, Sablayan, Mamburao, and Lubang Island; the Divine Word College of San Jose (DWCSJ); Philippine Central Islands Colleges (PCIC); Polytechnic University of the Philippines -Sablayan (PUP), and Colegio De San Sebastian (CDSS) (CHED, 2021).

Table 1 shows the list of recognized Higher Education Institutions in the province by the Commission on Higher Education along with their disaster topography. This table depicts the vulnerability and disaster risks that HEIs and their stakeholders may encounter.

Three different sets of respondents, namely, the academic and administrative heads, faculty members/employees, and students, provided the necessary data to be analyzed in answering the research questions. Based on the total number of stakeholders from the 10 HEIs and using the Raosoft Sample Size calculator, 300 respondents were taken as the sample for the study. The sample size was distributed through stratified random sampling for the quantitative data collection.

Out of 300 respondents selected for the quantitative data, 17.6% are aged in the range of 20–29 years, 36% are aged in the range of 30–39 years, 30.8% are aged in the range of 40–49 years, and 15.6% are aged in the range of 50–59 years. The female respondents were 44.8%, while the male respondents were 55.2%. The married respondents were 36%, while the single respondents were 64%. Respondents who have 1–5 years of work experience is 48%, who have 6–10 years of work experience is 12.8%, who have 16–20 years of work experience is 6.4%, who have 25–30 years of work experience is 1.2%, who have 26–30 years of work experience is 3.2%, and those who were full-time students is 28.4%. Some of the students were also working on a part-time basis.

For the qualitative data, the participants consisted of one academic and administrative head, one faculty member, and one student from each respondent set. Notably, 10 HEIs were selected purposively, thus making a total of 30 respondents. For gathering the qualitative data, the researcher personally visited the schools where they were located. Permission and approval were obtained in advance from the school head or campus before the conduct of face-to-face interviews and focused group discussions. Participants were requested to attend and participate in the focused group discussion and if the participant could not attend the focused group discussion due to unavailability and time constraints, then direct interview was conducted individually.

For the quantitative approach, a researcher-made survey instrument guided and enriched by existing literature and instruments on disaster communication, which were subjected to validation and reliability tests, was used. It was used to gather quantitative data from administrators, faculties, and students. Whereas, for the qualitative approach, a semi-structured interview guide was used. The survey instrument and interview guide were subjected to validation and a pilot study was performed to establish the reliability of the survey instrument.

The survey instrument was designed as follows: Part 1 determined the profile of academic and administrative officials according to sex, age, the highest educational attainment, and position in the Higher Education Institution with the years of service. Likewise, it is set to identify the faculty member's sex, age, the highest educational attainment, department, and the years of service. The profile of students was determined according to their sex, age, year level, and course.

Part 2 determined the communication challenges experienced by stakeholders in Higher Education Institutions during disasters considering individual factors, sociocultural factors, and situational factors using the Likert scale of 4–1 where 4 is a very high extent and 1 is a very low extent.

Part 3 ascertained the disaster communication strategies in the stages of the Crisis Emergency Risk Communication Theory in terms of pre-crisis, initial event, maintenance, resolution, and evaluation using the Likert scale of 4–1 where 4 is a very high level and 1 is a very low level of implementation.

For the qualitative approach, a semi-structured interview guide was used. Thus, in addition to the previously prepared questions, additional and follow-up questions were asked. This was Part 4 of the data-gathering instrument.

Part 4 was an open-ended question using a face-to-face interview directed to gather and analyze the recommendations of the respondents and to include the researcher's insights and lessons learned to improve the disaster communication strategies in their respective Higher Education Institutions.

Before the distribution of the research instrument, permission from the school heads and campus directors was obtained. The researcher personally distributed and collected the research instruments for nearby campuses. The researcher personally answered and responded to the queries of the respondents. The respondents were requested to answer the instrument within 1 week and the responses will be collected thereafter. For the OMSC Lubang Campus which is situated in an island municipality of the province, one of the school officials assisted the researcher in the distribution of the instruments. The questions from the respondents were forwarded to the researcher whose response was immediately provided.

The communication challenges experienced by the stakeholders and disaster communication strategies were measured using descriptive analysis through weighted mean and standard deviation. Factor analysis was used to identify the observed variables that directly affect the latent variables. Regression analysis was also used to determine and measure the effect of communication factors on the disaster communication strategies and Statistical Package for Social Sciences was used for the statistical analysis.

A semi-structured interview guide was used to gather narrative data. After the interview, qualitative data were analyzed using the thematic analysis. Direct Interview with the administrators was carried out personally and interviews with the faculty and students was executed using focused group interviews.

The results of the qualitative and quantitative analyses along with the results from data mining, which was performed by the researcher from the files and records requested to the HEIs and Provincial Government of Occidental Mindoro, were the basis for the formulation of a Disaster Communication Plan for the HEIs of the Province of Occidental Mindoro.

The communication challenges experienced by the HEIs' stakeholders in Occidental Mindoro are categorized into three groups, namely individual factors, sociocultural factors, and situational factors (Hansson et al., 2020). These factors are labeled as contributing to communication challenges that the public faces during a disaster and should be managed carefully to ensure a successful communication process. During the communication process, the sending of messages fails because it does not reach the receiver due to communication challenges, which are commonly known as noise interference or communication barriers, that hamper the communication process or at least distort the message (McQuail, 2010).

Table 2 shows that situational factors are perceived as the highest communication challenge experienced by stakeholders. Most of the HEI stakeholders' adversity during a disaster comes from a specific context of a particular disaster such as the disruption of communication channels due to power outages after the storm's devastation and loss of mobile connection occurring at their respective schools.

To elaborate, the highest pressing communication challenge under individual factors was the inefficiency of the emergency relief application text system. Under the socio-cultural factors, confusion and lack of familiarity by the stakeholders with the jargon used in communication updates and warnings were ranked as top communication challenges. Finally, situational factors pressing communication challenges were both loss of internet connection leading to inaccessibility of school social media sites and website and the loss of mobile connection causing an inability to access updates from school administrators and emergency managers.

Overall, communication challenges earned a grand mean rating of 2.56, which is described as high. Situational factors are rated very high with a mean rating of 3.60, while socio-cultural garnered the lowest with a mean rating of 1.84.

The communication challenges experienced during disasters are presented based on the three groups of stakeholders: administrative and academic officials, faculty and employees, and students.

According to the results of the interview, the top communication challenges experienced as shared by the administrative and academic officials during disasters were the affected communication lines hampered by brownouts and slow internet connection intensifying the challenges in the areas of situational factors. Another shared insight that highly contributed to the overall communication challenges encountered by the faculty members and employees was the absence of established communication strategies under a comprehensive disaster communication plan. Furthermore, communication strategies were not formally crafted and written and these are only being created as and when the need arises. Meanwhile, students shared their sentiments toward their experiences of mostly relying on word of mouth, which may be incomplete, altered, or outdated information coming from unreliable resources because of power interruptions and poor lines of communication.

The disaster communication strategies are grouped into five stages: crisis and Emergency Risk Communication (CERC) pre-crisis, initial, maintenance, resolution, and evaluation. CERC is a five-stage theory bounded by principles of crisis communication built to assist disasters, crises, and public health emergencies (Reynolds and Seeger, 2005). It was classified as an internationally recognized arsenal of disaster risk reduction. It was widely utilized to target stakeholders to understand and communicate with each other with a set of planning principles that allow them to communicate with a right and timely message to act in any disaster situation (Palenchar, 2010).

In the study, disaster risk communication strategies were the media and approaches that could be used to effectively and efficiently transmit and receive information and also included were the data collected before and during disasters by the stakeholders of HEIs such as the administrators, faculty and employees, and students during disasters such as typhoons, flooding, earthquakes, and fire.

The most frequently applied communication strategy under the pre-crisis phase is the delivery of reports and constructive messages to faculty members/employees and students. It is based on facts provided by the university/college DRRM Office's verified data and not on feelings or public hearsay. Meanwhile, the most frequently applied communication strategy under the initial phase is to report and coordinate under a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the other response and recovery groups and agencies in times of disaster. These are the local disaster departments, police and fire departments, media, and other personnel whose job is to safeguard the public during emergencies, natural disasters, and outbreaks.

In terms of the maintenance phase, motivating school faculty members/employees and students to act or remain vigilant through social media campaigns and advisories using vlogs and education advertisements garnered the highest remark from stakeholders among all communication strategies. For the resolution phase, the most utilized communication strategy is explaining to the university/college website and social media accounts what the institution is doing to respond and recover from the disaster and continue to provide updates to establish the school's credibility. Finally, for the evaluation phase, the widely utilized communication strategy is reducing the public issue and media confusion about the disaster that happened through a designated spokesperson assigned to communicate effectively in disseminating information.

In general, Table 3 shows that among all phases of crisis and emergency risk communication, the maintenance phase received the highest rating from the respondents. This connotes that HEIs in Occidental Mindoro have been consistent and effective with strategies during disasters. They had performed effectively in dealing with uncertainty reduction and continuous communication with the affected groups through messages providing a wider understanding to the public of the situation, intensive support, and cooperation in recovery efforts. In addition, respondents' remarks were high in the evaluation phase. These show that communication strategies revolve toward the evaluation process with a focus on discussions on lessons learned, new understandings, and adequacy of response using evaluation and assessment strategies, documentation of lessons, and creation of new linkages.

Meanwhile, both the initial and pre-crisis phases were deemed by the respondents as the lowest among the five phases. This means that communication strategies during these phases were poor and ineffective. This also means that campaigns being done by HEIs toward disaster education and communication to promote disaster preparedness were poor or lacking. This constitutes unprepared and insufficient disaster management skills among the stakeholders. Moreover, at the onset of the disaster, communication strategies directed toward uncertainty reduction and reassurance using immediate communication to the affected groups, using messages with empathy and alike were also viewed as inadequate and futile.

Overall, communication strategies earned a grand mean of 3.00 described as high with a standard deviation of 0.055 indicating that responses were homogeneous and similar among the different respondents. The maintenance phase had the highest mean of 3.53, which is described as very high followed by the evaluation phase with a mean of 3.41, which is described as high. The strategies that have the least means were the initial phase with a mean of 2.09 and the pre-crisis phase with a mean of 2.69.

In terms of improving disaster communication strategies, data from the interview of the school officials revealed that the platforms of disaster communication available are limited only to social media, mobile messages, and radio communications which have the potential to be affected by signal and power interruptions during disasters. In addition, faculty and employees observed that there is a lack of emergency hotline service in their respective HEIs and unresponsive social media accounts to reach the institution and relay their situation in times of disasters and emergencies. Meanwhile, students observed that there are few orientations, seminars, and workshops on disaster communication being provided by the HEIs since schools' practices are only limited to drills and training which are not open for all students to attend.

Education as a fundamental human right should be ensured by Higher Education Institutions to be accessible, safe, and provided equally. Unfortunately, despite the government support and existing DRRM measures of HEIs in Occidental Mindoro, large-scale destruction brought by disasters hamper educational development in the province. HEIs have been suffering numerous types of disasters ranging from typhoons and flooding to rain-induced landslides (Occidental Mindoro PDPFP, 2014).

Due to the dangers brought by disasters in the HEIs of Occidental Mindoro and the crucial role of disaster communication to ensure effective disaster risk management delivery, the study developed SANDATA or Safeguard Against Natural Disasters of Academes Through Actions. This is a disaster communication plan that is a timely and relevant measure for HEIs to secure an immediate, accurate, streamlined, and clear communication process using disaster communications strategies under all phases of Crisis Emergency Risk Communication.

The results and findings of the study on disaster communication strategies emerged with high remarks by the stakeholders and were utilized as a part of the key communication activities recommended to be used by HEIs in every phase of the disaster. With this, HEIs can fulfill the mandate laid down by the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction Management Act (RA10121) in safeguarding the community being designated as information generators and strategic communication planners promoting disaster resiliency and securing a safe learning environment for its stakeholders.

SANDATA as a disaster communication plan is divided into nine sections, namely, cover page (Figure 5), introduction, legal basis, scope, audiences, objectives, definition of terms, conceptual model (Figure 6), and disaster communication strategies (Tables 4–8).

The Province of Occidental Mindoro is a disaster-vulnerable community with its development geography facing poverty and climate change and is situated in the western part of Mindoro Island with all of its 11 municipalities situated along the coastlines of the West Philippine Sea. Due to its geographic location, storm surges, strong typhoons, and frequent flooding, it caused damages/losses to lives and properties, education, agriculture, and infrastructure (Provincial Development Plan of Occidental Mindoro, 2014).

Unfortunately, the study of Alejandro (2019) identified disasters to have been hindering educational opportunities and development while Cadag et al. (2017) linked extreme educational hurdles created by disasters resulting in disruptions of class, danger to students' lives, and damages to school infrastructures.

By capitalizing on disaster communication, as suggested by Barrantes et al. (2009), academic institutions can address chaos and confusion and safeguard their stakeholders and can provide visibility, credibility, and concrete direction using disaster communications.

Due to the dangers brought by disasters in the HEIs in the province and the crucial role of disaster communications, the study developed SANDATA or Safeguard Against Natural Disasters of Academes Through Actions, a disaster communication plan for Higher Education Institutions in the Province of Occidental Mindoro.

This disaster communication plan is congruent with RA 10121 or the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010 as the primary legal basis of all disaster risk reduction measures of the government. According to Ani et al. (2015), the law directed all national government agencies to institutionalize policies, mechanisms, and programs proactive toward disaster risk reduction provided under the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Plan (NDRRMP) for 2011–2028.

This plan covers the Higher Education Institutions of Occidental Mindoro, specifically Occidental Mindoro State College and its six campuses situated throughout different municipalities in the province: the campuses of Labangan, San Jose, Murtha, Sablayan, Mamburao, and Lubang Island. The other HEIs include the Divine Word College of San Jose, Philippine Central Islands Colleges, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, and Colegio De San Sebastian.

The involved respondents and sectors for this plan include Higher Education Institution stakeholders, especially college students, faculty members, and employees. The plan also connects with government institutions such as the provincial government of Occidental Mindoro and all the local government units functioning under it.

The model is anchored in the Melvin Defleur communication model (Haryanti and Rusfian, 2019), where the communication flow begins at the HEIs in Occidental Mindoro as the primary sources of information in the communication process. Then, as the college/university formulates its disaster messages for its stakeholders, the Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication principles for delivering effective messages have to be observed. As provided by the results of the study, principles, such as urgency, accuracy, credibility, empathy, action, and respect, are necessary for delivering an effective disaster risk message (Miller and Denham, 2020).

The transmitter or the communication medium/channel as one of the most important components of the model has to be carefully selected by the HEIs suited to the capability and availability of their stakeholders (Vardiansyah, 2004). It is a must to consider the communication resources of the stakeholders to ensure the direct transmission of messages from the HEI to its stakeholders which are the college officials, faculty members/employees, and students. Moreover, it is vital as well to determine the best mass medium device/strategy to be utilized for the Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication phases (Sellnow and Seeger, 2013) that the message will be conveyed. Along with this, the HEIs have to be mindful that every phase should have a recommended medium device/strategy in place to avoid the effects of communication challenges or noise, Hansson et al. (2020), which primarily disrupts the communication process or distorts the message causing a failed process of communication, misinformation, or confusion (McQuail, 2010).

The school stakeholders as the message recipients after successfully receiving the message from the communication medium/channel utilized by the HEI have to provide feedback in the form of a message or action as an indicator of successful message delivery in the communication process. The feedback is then expected to be executed again, through the transmitter or the communication medium/channel to relay the message to reach their respective HEIs. Finally, the roles of the primary source of information dissemination and the message recipients should be two-way communication as both HEIs and their stakeholders are expected to send messages and provide feedback and vice versa throughout the communication process.

Figure 6 shows the flow of the communication model under the conceptualized disaster communication plan.

Communication during disasters is crucial for academic institutions to maintain to protect and empower their stakeholders through accurate and reliable information in the best strategy and medium possible.

To ensure clarity, suitability, and effectivity of disaster communication strategies as an integral component of disaster risk reduction management, the plan provides a list of recommended key communication strategies that can be utilized by Higher Education Institutions in all stages of disaster.

Table 4 shows the pre-crisis phase, Table 5 shows the initial phase, Table 6 shows the maintenance phase, Table 7 shows the resolution phase, and Table 8 shows the evaluation phase. These tables comprised suggested disaster communication strategies in every phase of Crisis Emergency Risk Communication that key stakeholders of Higher Education Institutions in Occidental Mindoro can utilize. Along with corresponding anticipated communication challenges, the suggested medium/channel/transmitter and the office responsible for fulfilling the execution of the communication strategies are provided.