AS WE anticipate the year’s rainy months and brace for the wet season, various units of the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council from national down to the barangay levels are having regular meetings in preparation to possible effects of typhoons and low pressure areas inside the Philippine area of responsibility. As a long time public information officer of two government offices, I have been part of numerous coordination and advocacy drives believing that an ounce of prevention is better that a pound of cure as repeatedly said in many trainings and related drills.
The office that usually take the lead in coordination is the Office of Civil Defense serving as the implementing arm of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council. The OCD provides leadership and administration of a comprehensive national civil defense and disaster risk reduction and management program. With its vision to reduce the impact of major disasters whether natural or manmade, OCD partners with various agencies in conducting trainings and capability building exercises such as the Incident Command System.
With Republic Act 10121 of 2010 which is “An Act Strengthening the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management System”, the OCD is tasked to also provide leadership in the continuous development of strategic and systematic approaches as well as measures to reduce the vulnerabilities and risks to hazards and manage the consequences of disasters. One such function is to formulate standard operating procedures for the deployment of rapid assessment teams and establish an Incident Command System (ICS) as part of the country’s on-scene disaster response system to ensure the effective consequence management of disasters or emergencies.
In line with this, the different units earlier mentioned must therefore adopt and integrate ICS as an on-scene incident management mechanism within their areas and conduct ICS trainings for disaster managers and responders at all DRRMC levels, non-government organizations and private sector agencies.
Hazard in ICS is defined any incident, natural or human-induced, that warrants action to protect life, property, environment, public health, or safety and minimize disruptions of government, social or economic activities.
With ICS, there should be an Area Command or an organization established to oversee the management of multiple incidents that are each being handled by a separate Incident Command System organization or of a very large or evolving incident that has multiple Incident Management Teams engaged. A Barangay is one example of an area command. In a broader perspective, there should be an ICS Chief who is responsible for management of functional sections such as Operations, Planning, Logistics, Finance/Administration and Intelligence/Investigations if established as a separate Section. The RA also provides that there should be a Command Staff consisting of Public Information Officer, Safety Officer, Liaison Officer, and other positions that may be required who report directly to the Incident Commander.
Should there be disasters that seriously disrupts a community and cause human, material, economic or environmental losses where the local government and the emergency services are unable to meet the immediate needs of the community, a prompt disaster response or ICS must be immediately put to action in order to ensure public safety and save lives.
There are five major functions or activities in the Incident Command System. First is the Command followed by Operations then Planning, Logistics, and Finance or administration. A sixth function which is Intelligence or surveillance may be established if required as a management need. Of the four classes of hazards being natural, technological, biological and societal hazards, a Unified Command (UC) can be used when more than one agency has incident jurisdiction or when incidents cross political boundaries/ jurisdictions. ICS is also based on fourteen 14 proven management characteristics which contributes to the strength and efficiency of the overall system. These are the use of common terminology which allows diverse incident management and support, Organizational Function, Command, Planning, Operations, Logistics and Administration and Finance. In my case as Public Information Officer, my responsibility is to interface with the public and media and other agencies with incident-related information requirements. In large-scale incidents or where multiple command posts are established, the Public Information Officer should participate in or lead a joint information or media center in order to ensure consistency in the provision of information to the public. Any release of incident-related must first be cleared by the Incident Commander or Unified Command as a standard operating procedure.
The Safety Officer, on the other hand, monitors incident operations and advises the Incident/Unified Command on all matters relating to operational safety, including the health and safety of emergency response personnel. The ultimate responsibility for the safe conduct of incident management operations rests with the IC/UC and supervisors at all levels of incident management. It is important to note that the agencies, organizations, or jurisdictions that contribute to joint safety management efforts do not lose their individual identities or responsibility for their own programs, policies, and personnel. The Operations Section is responsible to Incident Command for the direct management of all incident-related tactical activities. All levels of the bureaucracy should have a DRR plan that aims to strengthen the capacity of the national government and local government units with partner stakeholders to build a disaster resilient communities.
The Act likewise envisions an all-hazards ICS established and institutionalized in the localities as an on-scene disaster response and management mechanism at all levels including public and private sector agencies.
As such, all incidents are expected to be managed locally through the local DRRMCs by using their own emergency response teams/personnel, such as Search and Rescue, Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment and Incident Management Teams.