CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- Some 80 personnel from the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) participated in an earthquake and fire drill the other day at its regional office in the City of San Fernando.
The disaster preparedness event was initiated by the Dole and Pampanga Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO) in observance of this year’s National Disaster and Resilience Month (NDRM).
Formerly called the National Disaster Consciousness Month, this year’s NDRM theme “4Ks: Kamalayan sa Kahandaan, Katumbas ay Kaligtasan,” highlighted the shift from disaster awareness building to disaster resilience.
The event was initiated as part of the regional office’s compliance with the Green our Dole Program and Government Excellence Class.
Dole Regional Director Ana Dione said that the drill was timely organized and facilitated because of recent earthquakes and calamities experienced by the country.
“We have experienced earthquakes of quite strong magnitudes these past couple of months, thus the need to heed to government’s call to “prepare for the big one” – a quake with a magnitude of 7.2 to be generated by the West Valley Fault, which is already ripe for movement,” Dione said.
“The Dole, which is an agency that looks after the conditions of workers through its occupational safety and health programs, should actively take part in all sorts of disaster-preparedness training and schemes because disasters strike like a thief in the night,” she added.
Pampanga PDRRMO Earthquake and Fire Drill Training Officers Rowel Tablante and Antonio Dungo and Dole Internal Management Services Division Chief Lorna SM Toldoya, led the drill and orientation which led to the
creation of the Dole Central Luzon disaster control group comprised of the rapid assessment, rescue, evacuation (incident command system), medical, fire safety, communications, and logistics teams.
The Dole regional and field offices are committed to hold regular or similar disaster preparedness drills at the wake of unforeseen earthquakes and other calamities. (PR)