Bomb drill at Greenbelt

Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) tested its emergency and rescue plan in a bomb blast evacuation drill early yesterday morning at the Greenbelt 3 Mall in Ayala Center, Makati City.

"The drill sought to test Greenbelt’s emergency and rescue strategy and guarantees its conformity with Makati’s emergency preparedness scheme," a statement from ALI said.

The drill was conducted in coordination with the city government’s safety, security, traffic emergency and rescue organizations, the Department of Health (DOH), and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

"ALI is the only private sector entity that has fully integrated its emergency and rescue system with that of a local government unit. Our system also follows the national government’s "Integrated Area Security for Strategic Commercial Services in Metro Manila," said Raul Irlanda, ALI vice president and Ayala Property Management Corp. president.

Irlanda, however, emphasized that prevention remains "a bigger component" of ALI’s emergency response plan.

"The Greenbelt drill is only the reactive part of our overall preparedness plan to deal with emergencies. The bigger component of the plan is the preventive part that provides for the systems and procedures we put in place to ensure that we will not find it necessary to go into the reactive part," he said.

Shortly before 8 a.m., a simulated bomb explosion "rocked" the posh Greenbelt 3, with almost a dozen "casualties" some of them fatally injured.

ALI’s security guards were the first to respond to the scene and cordoned off the area as they called for assistance from Makati’s rescue team.

Some of the victims were "extricated" from fallen debris using the city government’s equipment while the others were carried off to safety.

The coordination among all the rescue groups was one of the most important aspects of the emergency response that the drill sought to test.

An orange hard hat, was passed to the coordinator of each rescue stage, to determine the "point person."

A drill though it was, ALI made it as dramatic and realistic as it could with all the "blood" and smoke, courtesy of a fog machine.

Days before the drill, ALI distributed circulars to the business establishments in Greenbelt and the neighboring buildings to avoid panic.

Someone also annotated every scene and explained the process of the drill to emphasize that everything was simulated.

Greenbelt is one of the most populated areas in Makati and is home to upscale restaurants and shops.

The bomb drill was conducted amid continued terrorist threats in the country and around the world.