The National Resilience Council will join and assist the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority in evaluating the responsiveness of the contingency plan called the “Oplan Metro Yakal” during a metrowide earthquake drill this Saturday.
NRC adviser and former executive director of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council Alexander Pama met with MMDA officials on Monday and discussed details of the shake drill on July 27 which will start at 4 a.m.
During the coordination meeting, the NRC suggested injecting different scenarios to be staged at four quadrants: north, east, south and west where emergency command posts are set up.
Concerned government agencies, Metro Manila local government units, private sector and non-government groups are expected to join in the drill. Operators of SM Marikina and SM Manila vowed to take part in the scenarios at the west and east quadrant.
The scenarios are events most likely to happen when a 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck Metro Manila with all of its four quadrants affected.
“Events shall be acted out by pre-determined players in order to test protocols, coordinating mechanics, training, knowledge, preparedness, response of the quadrant leaders and members responding to emergency situations,” said Pama during the meeting at MMDA headquarters in Makati City.
NRC will deploy a team of evaluators to examine if all elements at risk and pre-existing vulnerabilities are reflected in the contingency plan and look at possible gaps on preparedness and response, to effect a more inclusive Oplan Metro Yakal Plus and look at further opportunities for NRC collaboration.
MMDA chairman Danilo Lim expressed gratitude to the NRC for its assistance to this year’s conduct of Metro Manila Shake Drill that hopes to test the efficiency and usefulness of Oplan Metro Yakal Plus in terms of preparedness, response, and recovery plans, etc.
The July 27 drill will start at 4 am with loud signals to be set off to announce its start. It aims to familiarize the people with the ‘duck, cover and hold’ activity and test the preparedness of Metro Manila for the eventuality of a powerful tremor.
The NRC is a public-private partnership on disaster risk reduction management engaging both the government and the private sector with civil society seeking to make the country better prepared to cope with disasters.
