New NDRRMC Center to rise in Camp Aguinaldo

MANILA, Philippines - A state-of the-art building that will serve as the nerve center of the country’s disaster response efforts will soon rise in Camp Aguinaldo.

The new operations center of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) will house facilities capable of seamless sharing of life-saving information, officials said.

The government will not spend a single centavo in the project as the construction of the facility will be shouldered by SMS Global Technologies Inc., a company that specializes in information technology solutions and its partners.

SMS Global Technologies President Anthony Angeles said the project was conceptualized after the devastation of typhoon “Yolanda,” which left more than 6,000 persons dead last year.

Angeles said they are not expecting anything in return from the government as the project is their way of helping the country.

“We know the challenges the government is facing. What we want to do is highlight our competence as a company to be able to do such kind of project,” he told reporters during the center’s ground-breaking ceremony in Camp Aguinaldo.

“The important thing is a lot of people, our current partners, are asking ‘how can we help.’”

Angeles said the cost of constructing the operations center has been estimated at around P250 million to P300 million. He said their industry partners have so far pledged P100 million for the project.

The construction of the operations center will start on Aug. 28 and is expected to be completed by April 20, 2015.

“We are confident that we can complete the amount. The schedule is challenging because it is very tight,” Angeles said.

NDRRMC Executive Director Alexander Pama said the new operations center would be a three-storey building with an area of 600 square meters. It will contain working areas for member agencies, a monitoring area, a board room and a media center.

“The most important aspect here is the additional capabilities like the higher bandwidth,” Pama said.

The center will use satellite communications for real-time video, voice and data transmission.

Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said the new operations center would serve as a “key enabler” of disaster risk reduction and management in the country.

“When 2016 ends, we look forward to having a state and art nerve center for DRRM (disaster risk reduction and management) in the entire Asia Pacific region,” Gazmin said.

“We need to communicate information on disaster preparedness to keep the public aware and connect with victims and responders to save lives,” he added.