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Philippines

12,000 participated in the 4Q NSED in Calapan

By Luis T. Cueto

CALAPAN CITY, Oriental Mindoro, Nov. 25 (PIA) – “More than 12,000 people have participated in the conduct of the 4th Quarter Nationwide Earthquake Drill (NSED) in Calapan City as the host city for this year’s event,” said Office of Civil Defense (OCD) Mimaropa Regional Director Ruben L. Carandang during the conduct of NSED in this city.

“It took 103 days of preparation just to fulfill this event. Our endeavor to succeed the event is a manifestation of full support and unity among all of us,” said Carandang.

The preparations invloved a series of meetings and dry runs for the event were conducted through the joint efforts of the OCD Mimaropa, City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (CDRRMC), Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (PDRRMO), and participating schools and other concerned national government agencies.

The 4Q NSED was participated by students, teachers, police officers, firemen, coast guards, military, employees of the city government of Calapan and Provincial Capitol of Oriental Mindoro including employees of the national government whose offices are inside the Provincial Capitol, and employees of business establishments.

Among the activities done during the drill were: Ceremonial pressing of the buzzer and simultaneous sounding of city-wide alarms signaling the earthquake commencement of drill; Convening of the city DRRMC; Activation of the emergency operations center; Activation of response clusters; Deployment of rapid damage assessment and needs analysis teams; Activation of the Incident Management Team (IMT); Installation of emergency telecommunications; Head count of evacuees; Conduct of Underwater Search Rescue and Retrieval (SRR); Looting scenario; First aid of students in the safe area; Assistance in evacuation to vulnerable persons by barangay responders; Vehicular accident with victim extrication; Residential fire suppression in Brgy. Ilaya; Structural fire suppression and high angle rescue; SRR by Naujan LDRRMO in Brgy. Ibaba East; Medical emergency management at Nuciti Mall; among others.

OCD Mimaropa Assistant Regional Director Nieves Bonifacio presented the number of participants in the drill as follows: Players, 12,056; Controllers, 18; Simulators, 186; Evaluators, 25; Support, 274; and Observers, 40 with a total of 12,599 number of participants.

The conduct of NSED in Calapan City also commemorated the 25th year anniversary of the province when it was hit by an earthquake with 7.1 magnitude where Calapan suffered most number of casualties brought about by devastating disaster on November 15, 1994.

City Mayor Arnan C. Panaligan thanked and congratulated all the participants in the drill especially OCD Mimaropa for "the job well done".

On the other hand, Gov. Humerlito A. Dolor said, “we still need to be prepared always as we do not know the time when the disaster will come, and we must be ready for it.” (LTC/PIA-OrMin)