BAGUIO CITY -- Take earthquake drills seriously.
This was learned rather late by some 18 students of the Baguio City National High School during an earthquake drill conducted by the school Friday morning in coordination with the Baguio City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (CDRRMC), Baguio Fire Department, Emergency Medical Service and the Office of Civil Defense (OCD).
The disappointed principal of the most populated public secondary school in the city, Dr. Elma Donaal, questioned the spread of unverified reports in local radio and the national media with conflicting numbers on affected students.
The Philippine News Agency earlier reported that 54 student where injured in the drill.
She said there was no stampede in the more than 6,000 student population school during the earthquake drill as verified by CDRRMC officials and the Baguio Fire Department.
Donaal said their investigations showed injuries and conditions complained by students “were not serious” as all affected were able to return to their classes in the afternoon after taking medications and treatment.
She stressed only three students were rushed to the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center, but two of the cases were not caused by the earthquake drill which doctors ruled out while others merely fainted due to exhaustion after skipping meals.
This was also confirmed by the attending physician in the medical clinic of the high school Dr. Jocelyn De Jesus claiming there was one patient who suffered an asthma attack while another hyperventilated while another student who is hypersensitive to sunlight resulted in the patient having rashes.
“When they went back there were those who pushed so itong natapilok dinala sa ospital because of a sprain. Yung mga nahilo na mga sampung estudyante na mga babae, malapit sa recess time na yun eh, gutom naman sila,” Donaal said.
She explained another case was a student with head bandage who incurred the injuries in a brawl Thursday and not during the exercise. This was also not verified by covering media, she said.
Donaal, meanwhile, said majority of the affected students were from Grade 7 or first year students aged between 13 to 14 years old.
She said students played their role well during the drill with some in bandages which appeared they were really injured but explained these were all part of the drill.
‘Not Taken Seriously’
But when the drill was conducted Friday, when students were supposed to go back to their classrooms, they went rowdy and pushed their classmates resulting in a student sustaining a sprain after being tripped over by a classmate, the principal told Sun.Star Baguio.
The medical doctor further added other students have not been listening to instructions which resulted in the panic while others merely enjoyed the drill and have not taken them seriously.
“Kalimitan pa nga sila ang naiinjure those who are not listening to instructions. But what happened awhile back, we have a lot of patients and those are patients who have fever, skipped their breakfast, may asthma, napatid at natalisod lang,” she added.
The medical doctor stressed all conditions brought to the clinic “were generally manageable which resulted to the immediate release of patients from the clinic.”
She stressed even those with conditions like asthma and other cardiac diseases should also be involved in disaster exercises after a parent complained of her daughter not to join the drills.
“Everyone must be involved. So kahit na sabihin natin na may cardiac diseases at may asthma if there is a drill dapat pa rin silang isama so we would know how to move them, they would know how to react,” she said.
Drill flaws
But De Jesus claimed the earthquake drill was not anywhere near perfect.
“Actually, hindi ko rin masasabi na very smooth yung drill because there are still some flaws in exits and everything. But it should have been very smooth except that syempre kasi kung minsan ang mga bata kasi laro-laro lang at they have not been listening,” De Jesus said.
The principal, meanwhile, stressed that despite preparations there are still many rooms for the improvement of the yearly earthquake drill.
She claimed that she is ready to explain to Department of Education Secretary Armin Luistro what had happened, emphasizing the coordinators and her office were never remiss in preparing students for the unannounced drill.
“Of course it should be unannounced. But we have prepared them well with the Athletic Bowl, Burnham Park and Harrison Road as designated evacuation areas” she said.
Nonetheless, OCD-Cordillera operations chief Engr. Jojo Valera said unannounced drills can only be conducted if a school is really prepared and have practiced the drills numerous times.
The principal, however, admitted that it was the first time for their Grade 7 or first year students to join the drill but explained the students “had their pre-year level drill last Monday so they know already what to do.”
She said the activity was well assigned and coordinated with those in charge pointing to the behavior of students and not really on the lack of coordination for the twice a year activity.
Valera, on the other hand, said they will investigate the conduct of the drill and make recommendations for the school for future actions.
“We have standards to be followed in capacitating them. We have to look at their services, signs and evacuation plans. Our staff actually has been looking for their evacuation plans,” Valera said.
While the OCD has one personnel detailed during the drill, he claimed, they were only there as observers and can only give recommendations to the City Government and school administration.
The Baguio City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council regularly conducts earthquake preparation drills in various public and private schools, colleges and universities here as part of the growing awareness on disasters after the city suffered major damages during the 1990 Luzon killer earthquake where hundreds of residents perished under collapsed buildings.