Thousands participated in the First Quarter Nationwide Simultaneous Earthquake Drill where the ceremonial venue was at the Quezon City Memorial Circle Thursday afternoon.

The event was led by National Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Officer-in-Charge Eduardo Ano, Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology Director Renato Solidum and National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council Executive Director Ricardo Jalad.

According to the council, the drill “was derived from the Metro Manila Earthquake Impact Reduction Study (MMEIRS), identifying potentially strong and destructive earthquakes along the West Valley Fault on the eastern side of Metro Manila and Manila Trench on the western side of Metro Manila.”

“Thousands of individuals, groups and organizations from the various sectors performed the duck, cover and hold at exactly 2 o’clock in the afternoon at the ceremonial venue as an initial response to a strong ground shaking caused by a magnitude 7.2 earthquake scenario,” it stated.

“During the earthquake drill, Quezon City tested their contingency plan for earthquake showcasing various scenarios namely: evacuation involving high density population, collapse structure search and rescue, fire suppression, hospital surge, and camp management,” it added.

Lt. Col. Emmanuel Garcia, AFP Public Affairs Chief said the military also joined the nationwide earthquake drill yesterday.

“All government agencies including AFP units nationwide performed the “Duck, Cover, and Hold” and other Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Response (HADR) programs and activities,” he said.

In Camp Aguinaldo, soldiers performed a rescue operation during a scenario where a structure collapsed.

Garcia said “during the simulation the Joint Task Force National Capital Region (JTF NCR) took the lead in all of AFP Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Response (HADR) efforts around Metro Manila and worked closely with partner agencies, in coordination with NCR DRRMC, JTF-NCR deploys all Disaster Rescue teams under its command.” Robina Asido/ DMS