The Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council of Camarines Sur (PDRRMC CamSur) conducted a 36-hour Provincial Multi-Hazard Simulation Exercise on July 29-30, 2022 to test the current readiness of the council, its member-agencies, and the local government units in responding to catastrophic incidents using the existing protocols. The event is one of the main highlights in celebration of the National Disaster Resilience Month 2022.
The 2-day operational simulation exercise was held in different municipalities particularly in Cabusao, Pasacao, Sipocot, Gainza, Iriga City, Buhi, and Naga Airport. An actual deployment and simulated response was conducted for given hazards and threats such as volcanic eruption, tsunami, hazardous materials, earthquake, landslide, fire, collapsed structure, bomb threat, oil spill, and coastal flooding.
Over 800 responders from 36 member-agencies and organizations of the province joined the SimEx. Army trucks, rescue trucks, ambulances, naval boats, rescue boats, and modern aircraft of Philippine Air Force were also utilized. This year’s simulation exercise is way bigger in terms of the number of participants, the area of coverage, and the number of resources deployed.
EDMERO Technical Officer Captain Edgardo Guevarra, PN (RET), shared, “SimEx is one realistic way for us to prepare in disaster operation. It is better to conduct this exercise prior to any incident to correct the flaws and address the gaps in disaster response. All scenarios that we prepared were designed to test the maximum capability of the province. We made sure that all needed response skills should be applied by our responders.”
Apart from assessing the capability and readiness of the council’s member-agencies and LGUs in responding to multi-hazards incidents, the simulation exercise also aimed at assessing the knowledge and awareness of responders on the Provincial Contingency Plan, utilizing and adopting of all existing protocols in consonance to Emergency Operation Center and Incident Command System, and putting into practice the single line of communication through different levels of DRRMCs and Incident Management Teams.
FO3 Richard Abardo, Chief Emergency Medical Services of BFP Gainza, and one of the participants during the SimEx, shared, “SimEx was challenging yet rewarding. I was overwhelmed with the number of victims because I only have limited resources. Yet, we executed our mission to rapidly extricate and immediately transferred the victims from the train derailment site up to the treatment area. I tapped the barangay safety officers as immediate force multipliers on the ground to help us address the scenario.”
Through the SimEx, BFP showed that they are really prepared in all eventualities. The agency respond not only in fire suppression, but also in other operations like search, rescue, and retrieval, Emergency Medical Services response, and others scenarios since they are trained to do such operations according to their mandate.
FO3 Abardo added, “This exercise gave us level of preparedness and capabilities in responding to real scenarios just like the large-scale earthquake that hit Abra. Thus, I am very thankful to PDRRMC CamSur for crafting activity like this which seemed to be complicated and difficult yet we were still able to perform. In real-life situations, I know that we will be able to fulfill our mission which is to save lives.”
Marieser Almelor, CDRRM Officer of LGU Iriga, another participant during the SimEx, stressed, “The SimEx was useful in our day to day operation. Through this, we were able to know the importance of inter-operability operations and what to do in case scenarios like this happen in reality. Teamwork is really necessary. During the SimEx, the city of Iriga did not respond alone. Teams from other municipalities like Bato, Baao, Nabua, and even the hospitals helped in the operations.”
She added, “I think that disaster operations will become easier if there is support from the local chief executive, cooperation of the entire DRRM council, and the trainings conducted especially the Incident Command System.”
During the SimEx, Almelor was designated as an EOC Manager. She experienced by herself that trained staff and contingency plans alone are not enough in responding to incidents. The familiarization of the system and protocols are important: how to dispatch resources, how to manage response cluster, how to handle agencies depending on their capabilities, among others.
After the simulation exercise, Captain Guevarra commended the responders for showing a high degree of realism during all the scenarios. Also, some of the good practices performed include closer collaboration of different member-agencies, and the adoption of existing response protocols. Also, he cited the gap noticed during the SimEx such as responders’ incapacity to handle hazardous material incident.
Moreover, due to the heavy rains during the simulation exercise, real emergency response situations occurred in Buhi that needed immediate actions. Thus, instead of participating to the SimEx, Governor Luigi ordered the Provincial IMT to dispatch heavy equipment on the affected areas. Responders performed scenarios such as surveillance at the reported flooding in Ipil and Iraya, Buhi, road clearing at Burocbusoc to Tambo, Buhi and clearing of congested water lilies at the bridge of Salvacion, Bula.
The PDRRMC CamSur under the leadership of Governor Luigi Villafuerte always ensures that all its responders are prepared and capacitated in responding to multi-hazard incidents that might occur. The simulation exercise is also a preparation for the council as they are assigned for augmentation and assistance to Taguig City when the 7.2 Magnitude earthquake transpires.
