‘Take every shake drill seriously’ — MMDA 

MANILA, Philippines — The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) said earthquake drills must be taken seriously as they end the 5th Metro Manila-wide “shake drill” on Saturday.

“Let us take every shake drill seriously. Just this morning, an earthquake struck Batanes which caused casualties and damage to properties,” MMDA chairman Danilo Lim said in a statement on Saturday.

Lim was referring to the twin quakes that hit Itbayat town in Batanes this morning where eight people were killed and at least 60 individuals were injured.

READ:UPDATE: 8 dead, 60 injured in Batanes quake

READ: Magnitude 5.8 aftershock jolts Batanes

Lim, likewise, said the fifth shake drill in Metro Manila was a “success,” noting that they will continue to level up their measures on disaster preparedness.

“With the success of this year’s activity, rest assured that the Metro Manila Shake Drill will continue to level up to intensify our level of awareness, preparedness, and responsiveness as we also continue to step up our set-up and scenarios each year until we’ve achieved the highest level of disaster preparedness and risk reduction awareness,” Lim said.

Lim said this year’s shake drill was not “government-centric” as even private sectors participated in taking part of emergency preparedness activities.

“We have seen that government, non-government organizations, private sector and volunteers can work together in making Metro Manila stronger against any disaster. Gone are the days that preparedness and response mechanism is very much government-centric,” he said.

Starting 4 a.m., several local government units, private sectors and non-government organizations took part in the metro-wide shake drill.

Mass evacuation, fire incidents, mass evacuation and vehicular accidents were the critical scenarios conducted in the shake drill. /muf