THE first quarter Nationwide Simultaneous Earthquake Drill (NSED) facilitated by the Iloilo City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO) and Office of Civil Defense (OCD)-Western Visayas will highlight five major areas in the metropolis on February 21.

These sites are John B. Lacson Foundation Maritime University in Barangay Santo Niño Sur, Arevalo; SM City; Iloilo Business Park (Megaworld); Iloilo Mission Hospital (IMH); and City Hall.

IMH Administrator Elmer Pedregosa said this will be the first time that the hospital as a medical institution will be involved in the drill.

“Our participation will be on the treatment of patients because definitely in such disaster like earthquake, we can’t get away with injuries, fractures, and more. The immediate response will be to place them in an institution that can treat them,” he said.

Pedregosa also said NSED is very important to test everyone’s preparedness not only for the hospital but also the general public.

“I think it is good that we have trainings like this. It will be nice because we will witness and be able to see the training, knowledge and attitude in incidents like earthquake, for it will be beneficial at the same time for us to see the capability of every department on how to respond to such disaster,” Pedregosa said.

CDRRMO head Donna Magno said the quake drill expects to gather 5,000 to 8,000 participants in the five locations to highlight the interoperability, protocols, standard operating procedures of concerned agencies during emergencies, and check the structural integrity of buildings in the city.

“Part of the drill is to raise the awareness and also to showcase what Iloilo City has in terms of preparedness,” she said. (PR)