City conducts mock quake drill for employees

THE City Government conducted Monday a mock drill to ensure some 700 employees of the Davao City Hall are prepared in case an earthquake occurred.

"Ato ni sila gihimo na preparasyon aron masayod ang atong mga empleyado ug makabalo na sila unsa ilang buhatun ug ingkaso naay linog (We are conducting this in order to let our employees know what to do in case there will be an earthquake)," Erwin Alparaque, chief of Human Resource and Management Office (HRMO), told reporters Monday.

As part of the drill, he said, a 30-second alarm system buzzes inside various offices in City Hall, as someone informs everybody to evacuate and positioned themselves outside the building.

"Tanan department sa City Hall naa nay gimugna nga disaster action team (There is a disaster action team formed in each department of City Hall)," Alparaque said, adding that these groups had undergone a seminar on what to do in all cases of calamities like earthquake.

He said everybody inside City Hall, including guests and clients, were told to participate.

Isaac L. Nacilla, supervising administrative officer of the HRMO, who was also in-charge of Monday's drill, said it was a part of the emergency preparedness program of the City Government.

"Mock drill to siya. Gi-apply namo ang kadtong na-agree nga evacuation plan diri sa City Hall, involving tanan occupants (It was a mock drill. We applied the approved evacuation plan for City Hall which involves all occupants)," Nacilla told reporters.

He said they invited personnel from the Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council together with its counterpart the Davao City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council to evaluate the participation of the employees.

He said the drill also aims to improve the existing evacuation plan.

Nacilla, in a phone interview Monday afternoon, said evaluators have recommended to further intensify everybody's response on the drill.

He said some of the things needed to be developed are the attitude of the employees on taking it seriously and the alarm system.

"Mock drills lang man siya. The actual earthquake drill for the city government is yet to come. Hopefully within the month of November mangyayari na ang earthquake drill," Nacilla said.

"There will also be unannounced drills. This will serve as our actions in case of emergencies. Hopefully it would be better than what we had," he said.