National earthquake drill set on Thursday, March 13
Grade school students of Miriam College participate in the Metro-wide earthquake drill. (File photo from JULIE AURELIO/PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER)
MANILA, Philippines — The Office of the Civil Defense (OCD) will hold a nationwide earthquake drill on Thursday (March 13).
In a statement on Wednesday, OCD said it is set to conduct the First Quarter Nationwide Simultaneous Earthquake Drill (NSED).
It will be joined Santa Rosa City and other nearby LGUs, the Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council of Calabarzon, as well as the Mimaropa region.
READ: Nationwide earthquake drill set Thursday afternoon
According to OCD Administrator Undersecretary Ariel Nepomuceno, the drill will be participated by a diverse group of stakeholders.
They include special education schools, amusement parks and the Armed Forces Reserve Force, among others.
“The full-scale exercise will encompass a range of scenarios including aerial damage assessments, hazardous materials response, collapsed structure search and rescue, jailbreak scenarios, vehicle extrication, and the evacuation of school children with learning difficulties,” Nepomuceno said.
“We are situated on the Pacific Ring of Fire, making us susceptible to various disasters, including earthquakes. As of December 2024, the Philippines has a risk index of 9.7 out of 10 for earthquakes,” he noted.
“This underscores the urgency of our preparations, especially with the looming threat of the ‘Big One’—a potential 7.2 magnitude earthquake,” he claimed.
