THE
INTENSITY OF DISASTERS that have hit the Philippines had never been
so alarmingly high and threatening. Unexpected heavy rains produced
so much damage to property and agriculture and caused unnecessary
loss of lives. Areas which had never before been inundated by these
natural onslaughts are now part of the swath of destruction that had,
in the past, affected our eastern seaboard only. Weather patterns
are now very unpredictable, all because of this climate change.
Our
usual response are reactive. We mobilize only during and after a
disaster. For that matter, it is too late and too little. National
emergency response teams and volunteer organizations are stretched to
the limit offering what is available and where it is most accessible.
There are only a few dedicated teams on stand-by and most of these
are located only in Metro Manila and the rest of the country are left
to fend for themselves. When that happens, the government are forced
to spend more.
In
order to preempt such daunting challenges, the Office of the Deputy
Chief of Staff for Reservist and Retiree Affairs (J9), Armed Forces
of the Philippines (AFP) decided to formulate a program that will
organize, train and integrate Disaster Risk and Reduction Management
(DRRM) Companies into the AFP Reserve Force. One of its objectives
is to put up 137 DRRM Companies in three years (2013-2016) in all
fifteen regions nationwide.
It
will be proactive and that will be its primary function since it will
be an on-site unit which will spearhead Disaster Preparedness and
Mitigation that will work closely with Local Government Units (LGU)
and the local populace. When called upon during disasters and
calamities, it will be a reliable First Responder Group. As such,
these units will become the AFP’s force multipliers to assist the
Office of Civil Defense (OCD) and their respective LGUs in their DRRM
Operations and Programs.
Last
October 12, 2013, this blogger was invited by CPT JOSE GOCHANGCO,
JAGS (Res) to attend a DRRM Bayanihan Forum which was hosted by the
5th Technical and Administrative Brigade - Visayas (Reserve), AFP
Central Command at the Sacred Heart Center in Cebu City. I represent
the mountain-outdoors sector and my club – Camp Red Bushcraft and
Survival Guild. Aside mine, other sectors were represented like the
medical and legal professions, the Coast Guard Auxiliary (PCGA), the
Air Force rescue unit (505 SAR), the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP),
volunteer rescue groups, the Army reservists (RCDU) and
representatives of LGUs from the Western Visayas Region.
Guest
of honor and speaker is MAJ GEN MARLOU SALAZAR AFP, DCS J9. He is
the brains behind this program and he gave a presentation of how this
will work out. He wanted Cebu to be the first in the Visayas and
Mindanao to organize a DRRM Company and another Civil Medical
Operations (CMO) Company as they just did recently in Metro Manila.
I rose to the challenge by concurring with Jack Janson, the Training
Director of the Central Visayas Search and Rescue Unit (CEVSAR), to
organize a DRRM Company amongst ourselves.
Part
of the package in organizing a DRRM/CMO Company is that each member
will have the option to become an AFP Reservist – a citizen soldier
– and a chance to be commissioned in the reserve force if ever
he/she complies with certain requirements set by J9, AFP. A member
can then avail of a series of cross-trainings like Health and
Emergency Management (Dept. of Health), Water SAR (Navy/Coast Guard),
Collapsed Building SAR (BFP), Air Deployment SAR (Air Force), Hazard
Area Mapping (Dept. of Energy and Natural Resources), Mountain and
Difficult Area Operations (Army) and the Incident Command System.
Although
a DRRM/CMO Company source their own equipment and materials by
themselves or through donors, the OCD and the LGU will provide travel
and mittimus expenses to and fro the affected areas. These
companies, by purpose, are purely voluntary and it will not be taken
against an individual should he/she decide not to go on a deployment.
By being “territorial”, deployment time will be swift and would
not have to go a long bureaucratic process by which the old system
works.
I
have committed myself and Camp Red to form a company among other
outdoors enthusiasts together with CEVSAR. Dominic Sepe and Eli Bryn
Tambiga, also of Camp Red, attended this occasion and will be the
first of the personnel, together with Jack of CEVSAR, to compose one
of the many DRRM/CMO companies for Cebu. I am eyeing to hook up with
the PCGA, the BFP and ham radio clubs. Before this forum had been
conceptualized, I had already initiated the training/seminar of Camp
Red and other outdoors groups about wilderness emergency
preparedness, acute mountain sickness, ham radio operations, land
navigation, primitive-living skills, stamina build-up, etc.
It
is about time that we all work together to prepare for and mitigate
risks concerning disasters before it is too late to act. The ugly
presence of climate change is real and it had distorted greatly our
weather patterns and the volume of rainfall. Nature’s wrath is an
act of Providence and there is nothing we can do about it but we
could adapt and improvise and make something out of that. We have to
reformat our way of thinking and the programs presented during the
DRRM Bayanihan Forum are solutions worthy of trying.
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