VARIOUS government agencies, private companies and schools in Davao City heeded the #Pagyanig challenge on Wednesday, September 28, and joined in the third quarter of the National Simultaneous Earthquake Drill in a bid to heighten the level of preparedness and capacity of citizens in the heels of disaster.
Headed by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), this activity is conducted four times a year to ensure the public's safety when earthquakes occur in their respective areas.
Following the recent earthquake that rocked the city, Office of the Civil Defense (OCD) Regional Director Liza Mazo told reporters that their office is ready because of various indicators which they have already organized.
"We have already plans and actions taken, these are indicators that we are doing for risk reduction and preparation. If these are the basis, yes we are ready," Mazo affirmed.
The OCD used the activity as a strategy to alleviate the impact of disasters and increase the resiliency the citizens in the midst of natural calamities.
"Usually, schools do this because of the memorandum issued by the Department of Education (DepEd) to conduct the drills regularly," Mazo added.
Mazo, however, said they widened the coverage of their drills by conducting it in buildings such as in the Pryce Tower located along J.P Laurel Avenue.
"We extended our campaign outside the schools. This is very challenging to conduct in a 15-storey building," Mazo said.
At around 9 a.m., an alarm signaled the start of the drill wherein over 400 employees of the building begun emerging outside and performed the dock, cover and hold position.
They headed to a safe open space that served as their evacuation area.
During the drill, the safety officers executed a retrieval operations, communications, and medical assistance to affected individuals and facilitated the evacuation.
The employees follow the four universally accepted evacuation rules: Don't talk. Don't push. Don't run. Don't turn back as they calmly directed the area.
When everybody was already at the open ground, a headcount was conducted to ensure that nobody was left behind inside the building.
Flor Jose Carion, building manager and safety officer, they beat their previous record of 14 minutes to seven seconds to fully evacuate the area.
Mazo, who was also one of the evaluators, said they will give recommendations to the building officials to ensure the safety and security of the employees.
Based on her evaluation, the overall result was satisfactory though there were some lapses in terms of the execution.
Mazo said the OCD has been conducting information, education campaign to provide appropriate information when calamities happen and to also determine interventions to be done.
"When earthquake happens, do not panic," she reminded the public.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) Science Research Specialist Janila Deocampo said Davao City is vulnerable compared to Mati City because it is highly urbanized.
"Yung urban centers natin are located wherein the soil materials are soft so medyo mataas yung probability na mas mataas yung damage in effect kung magkakaroon ng lindol sa area," Deocampo said.
The City Engineer's Office usually required the building officials of high rise buildings to have a structure analysis to make sure that the capacity of the building could stand.