(DUCK, COVER AND RUN. Book for head protection, Gov. Dennis Pineda leads evacuation of the Capitol during quake drill. Photo courtesy of Jun Jaso/Pampanga PIO)
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – To ensure the readiness of employees during disasters, the Provincial Government of Pampanga led by Gov. Dennis ‘Delta’ Pineda, conducted a fire and earthquake drill on Monday, July 22.
The activity is also in line with the celebration of the National Disaster Resilience Month 2019 with the theme, “Kahandaan sa Sakuna’t Peligro para sa Tunay na Pagbabago.”
According to Gov. Pineda, this is to instill disaster preparedness and mitigation to Kapampangans, as part of the continuous campaign towards building a disaster-resilient province.
This was also reiterated by Angie Blanco Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO) chief.
For her, “walang sakuna sa taong laging handa.”
The exercise, which had a 7.2-magnitude earthquake scenario, covered stages namely alarm, response (duck, cover, and hold), evacuation, assembly or head counting, incident command system, and mass casualty handling.
Provincial Administrator Atty. Charlie Chua served as the Incident Commander in the event. With him were the nine teams to execute the simulated rescue and retrieval operations such as Communication; Traffic and Security; Rapid Assessment; Evacuation; Rescue; Medical and Social Worker; Fire Fighting; Logistic and; Transportation.
Meanwhile, personnel from Philippine National Police (PNP), BFP, Office of the Civil Defense (OCD), and Philippine Red Cross were the evaluators of the drill.
In their message, they cited Pampanga, as well as Gov. Pineda, for joining the celebration during his first month as provincial chief executive.
Although there were few reminders for improvement, the Governor assured that he will prioritize this in his pilot programs, especially that the state-of-the-art Command Center will soon operate in the province.
