Del Rosario, just back from surgery, leads quake drill at DFA
Employees and officials of the Department of Foreign Affairs walked out of the DFA headquarters on Thursday morning covering their heads with their hands to simulate an evacuation in case of a 7.2-magnitude earthquake.
Even the 75-year-old Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert Del Rosario, who had just recovered from a medical procedure on his back in May was seen joining the metro-wide earthquake drill with the DFA’s hundreds of employees.
After the siren went off at 10:30 a.m., the employees began calmly walking out of the building and grouping themselves according to the departments they belong to at the parking lot along Roxas Boulevard.
The parking lot is the DFA’s main evacuation site should an earthquake occur.
With their guardians, young toddlers of the DFA’s daycare center were also seen joining the drill, wearing small bright-colored hard hats and holding on a rope.
An incident command post was set up near the DFA gate where an employee made a tally of the evacuees.
“All floors clear,” the officer in charge of the command post said to end the 30-minute drill.
