Lapses noted in earthquake drill

CEBU, Philippines - Aside from taking selfies, some employees of the Cebu provincial government were found to be lax during yesterday's conduct of another earthquake drill. 

"I'm getting a lot of text. Gusto na daw manud but you know we have to play this out. This is not the first time we've done it. We've done it several times and karon we're doing this because it's the directive of Office of Civil Defense (OCD). We are very cooperative. Everytime we go through this naa man gyud tay mga flaws or mga sayop nga makit-an. Ang mga tao dili ma appreciate ang importance ani," said provincial administrator Mark Tolentino.

The Capitol staged the earthquake drill to test the employees' mental, physical and emotional readiness during calamity.

As the alarm sounded at 9:20 a.m., the employees immediately proceeded to their designated areas.

"Everybody was more familiar already with their roles. I remember before, katong naay long nga siren nga wala gani mi kahibaw unsa na ba, pero karon because we do it more often. Murag ang mga tao ma trigger na ba nga 'oy naa man diay drill'. Everybody knows where to go," said lawyer Mark Tolentino, provincial administrator.

Members of the Philippine National Police and the military's Central Command also participated in the drill, practicing search and retrieval operations inside Bureau of Agriculturist Extension Building.

According to Joy Hernandez, one of the evaluators from the OCD, the gap in time was due to the clearing procedure that rescuers and their team engineers did in order to assess the safety of the building.

"I test nato ang integrity sa building kung safe ba isud sa responders or else ang aftershocks man gud may come in anytime and ma-compromise ilang safety sa sud. So it takes time kay dako man kaayo ang building and atong team of engineers nga mag-conduct sa integrity sa building ila pang gitan-aw ang mga areas and ila gyud nang gituyok so mao nay nakadugay sa panahon ganina. Pero tan-aw nato sakto-sakto ra man sad. In real scenario dili gyud ta ingon nga magdalidali kay kung magdalidali ta ma compromise atong safety sa mga responders ana," she said.

Tolentino gave a performance rating of 7.5 out of 10 after the drill.

The observance of time and coordination with the Bureau of Fire and Protection, PNP and the military were the basis for the assessment.

Tolentino said more drills will be staged in the future after they recognized some flaws and the areas that need improvement.

"We will never know unsa g'yuy reaction sa mga tao that's why we prepare so that they will know nga this is what they are supposed to do. In an actual crisis situation, we don't know if people will maintain their poise or not but with education, we hope nga kahibaw sila unsa ilang buhaton," Tolentino said.

Rafael Luche of the Provincial Risk Reduction and Management Office said there is a plan to train employees on incident command system.

"Within this month ang training. Not only from the employees on first aid, but even management sa mga department heads, we'll be training them on incident command system. Basically what we are doing now is the application of the concept of incident command system wherein ang mga department heads automatic na nga moari sa incident command post," Luche explained.

Many lapses

Different lapses were observed by the Department of Health regional director Dr. Jaime Bernadas during the earthquake and fire simulation drill yesterday.

The DOH regional office served as the pilot area of the drill called "Shake Rattle and Roll" of the OCD and the Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.

  "This exercise was very much appreciated although we see some discrepancies as expected, like inappropriate actions sa mga actors but nonetheless those were expected in a situation like this. I personally will say that the activity was a success," Bernadas said.

The drill was supposedly in preparation for a magnitude 7 earthquake.

He thanked the cooperation of the participants and hopes to conduct the drill in other agencies.

 "There were unnecessary actions, there were some omissions on the actual response, those were minor things but they were observed by our experts around here.. There were stations that were inappropriately labeled, there were stations that should have been situated a lot better than what was done. For example, the staging area could have been put a little farther to avoid congestion of the resources going to the triage area on the actual site," Bernadas commented.

 Bernadas explained the instances that have caused the congestion of some areas.

 "That was also one of the problems the fire truck from the fire department went ahead of the call for a response for the fire. So wala pa ang fire, nakaabot na ang fire department but they were situated in an area where they were not supposed to be. They should have been in the other side sa staging area in order not to congest the actual response area," he said.

Dr. Joseph Al Alesna, assistant coordinator of Health Emergency Management Staff, said the errors will serve as part of the learning process during the evaluation.

 OCD-7 director Olivia Luces said Metro Manila has already undertaken an earthquake simulation exercise.

 "Since we are the second city (of the Philippines), we think it appropriate na gawin muna natin to sa medical sectors and then the LGUs. With this, we are happy na ang DOH, aware sila sa Incident Management System," she said.

 "Practice, practice practice. Para ma inculcate sa huna-huna sa empleyado ug sa lumolupyo sa metropolitan Cebu na ingon ana gyud and buhaton nato in case there will be major shaking in Metro Cebu. Usa sa challenge sa LGUs, labi na sa local DRRM officers nga i-inculcate up to the family level," OCD assistant regional director Verneil Balaba also said.

 Among the participants of the drill were the Bureau of Quarantine, Philippine Red Cross, Cebu City Quick Response Team, Bureau of Fire Protection, National Telecommunications Commission, Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center, Cebu City Medical Center, Philippine National Police, Armed Forces of the Philippines, and the Abellana National High School. (FREEMAN)