Rain fails to dampen quarterly earthquake drill
Despite rainy weather, more than a thousand joined the earthquake drill in Binan, Laguna on Wednesday.
Regional civil defense director Vicente Tomazar said around 1,700 participants joined the drill at Juana Village, Brgy. San Francisco in Binan, Laguna.
Tomazar said the participants include more or less 900 responders from different government agencies and private sectors or volunteer groups and around 800 evacuees that includes teachers, students and residents.
He noted some responders came Quezon and Batangas provinces.
“We also tested the response capability of our nearby provinces because we have included the scenario where the province of Laguna is badly hit by the earthquake and it needs the assistance coming from nearby places,” he said.
During the ceremony, Phivolcs Director Renato Solidum lauded the participants for the successful conduct of the exercise.
“I am glad that despite the rainy weather, although you are wet look, you have successfully performed (the drill),” he said.
Ozamo Itagaki, a representative from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) also emphasized the good performance of the participants during the drill.
“It is raining but it was good impression that they are doing the drill by themselves and I think this kind of activity should be continued, I supposed, despite the rainy condition they did their best and it was very good exercises,” he said in an interview to the Daily Manila Shimbun.
“Philippine culture is different from Japan culture, in some part Philippine skills is higher than Japanese skills and somehow Japanese skills can contribute to Philippine skills, from my point of view for example about the response Philippines has much higher skills I think, while about planning, long term planning for reducing disaster risk in the society in this case I think Japan can contribute to your society,” he added.
Defense Undersecretary Eduardo Del Rosario emphasized that the exercise is one of the best he has witnessed.
“I have attended numerous earthquake drills when I was the administrator of the Office of Civil Defense and I can say that your performance is one of the top three,” he said.
The one hour and eight minute drill included showing responses to scenarios that may occur when a 7.2 magnitude quake hits the area because of possible movement of the West Valley Fault.
The scenarios performed during the drill includes evacuating injured victims, rescue in collapsed structures, high angle rescue, aerial reconnaissance that was conducted by the Philippine Air Force helicopters, fire suppression and others.
Undersecretary Ricardo Jalad of the disaster risk reduction agency, emphasized the conduct of simultaneous earthquake drills every quarter aims to prepare the public against possible calamities.
“We want our people to be prepared against the danger of earthquakes and other hazards. We remain in the path towards resilience as a nation, so we urge all Filipinos to join and participate in this drill and other future exercise that we will be conducting,” he said. Robina Asido
