THE Poenix gasoline depot at the Reclamation Area in Bacolod City underwent a crisis response drill on Wednesday, February 20, to determine its readiness in responding to an emergency.
The drill was in cooperation with the Special Weapon and Tactics (Swat), Bacolod City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office, Police Station 2, and other agencies.
Senior Inspector Leo Estopa, head of Police Station 2, said the drill was based on a scenario in which an employee demanded something from the Phoenix management, but the management did not give in, thus, he resorted to hostaging two employees.
During the simulation, a bomb exploded.
A Swat team responded to the scene, along with the personnel of the Scene of the Crime Operatives.
“Given our situation now, we need to be ready to respond to any crisis and eventualities that will happen in our area. Overall, the drill was successful and it was well coordinated with the various agencies that performed their respective role in our simulation exercise,” Estopa said.
For his part, Phoenix Petroleum Philippines Inc.-Bacolod head Rico Ureta said this security drill is “part of the requirement on our crisis preparedness as to how we react or handle a crisis when it strikes us.”
“This exercise is a management requirement every month where we need to conduct drills. So, this is part of our security measure on how we will handle situations like this...we need to have drills to check on how prepared we are,” he said.