The Philippines will hold its third quarterly earthquake drill with Laguna province as the pilot area on Wednesday, the executive director of the National Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said Saturday.

In an interview with government radio, Ricardo Jalad urged Filipinos to join the nationwide simultaneous earthquake drill on Wednesday.

“We hope that on September 28, at 9am we will Duck, Cover and Hold and participate on the 3rd (quarter) National Earthquake Drill,” Jalad said.

“Awareness is important for us to know what we should do. It is difficult if we do not know what to do,” he added.

Jalad and the NDRRMC members will lead the conduct of different activities in the vicinity of Juana Village, Brgy. San Francisco, Binan City in Laguna which will serve as the ceremonial area for the exercise.

He explained the agency choose Laguna as pilot area of the nationwide drill because the West Valley Fault extends up to Laguna.

“In previous earthquake drills we finished here in Metro Manila (as ceremonial venue), also in Region 3. Basically we are also looking at Region 4A and we know that our West Valley Fault extends up to Cavite, Batangas, Laguna. So we also have to prepare our people there,” he said.

Jalad did not give details of scenarios during the drill but he noted these includes the response to collapsed structures and communication exercise.

“We are also setting up alternate operations center here in Camp Aguinaldo so we will see how we are going to have connection through our communication with our councils,” Jalad said. Robina Asido