AFP joins nationwide quake drill in preparation for ‘Big One’

By: Bong Lozada - 10 years ago

Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang, Jr. AFP PUBLIC AFFAIRS

MANILA, Philippines—In anticipation of a probable massive earthquake, the Armed Forces of the Philippines will join the Office for Civil Defense in a nationwide earthquake drill on Friday.

Lieutenant Colonel Harold Cabunoc, AFP Public Affairs Office Chief, said the AFP would also test its capabilities in disaster response in the earthquake drill at the General Headquarters grandstand at 9 a.m.

“We must always prepare ourselves and the country as a whole in calamitous events such as strong earthquakes that could hit the metropolis anytime,” General Gregorio Pio Catapang, AFP Chief of Staff, said.

Simultaneous drills would also be conducted at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center and Quezon City Memorial Circle.

Camp Aguinaldo would serve as the communication center in the supposed aftermath with the VMMC serving as a makeshift hospital.

At the Quezon City Memorial Circle, authorities would stage a scenario of a magnitude 7.2-quake.

Personnel from the AFP’s Communication Electronic and Information System would establish a communication network, Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Response (HADR) monitoring operation center at the GHQ grandstand and at the AFP-OCD coordination center in VMMC.

Cabunoc added that four air ambulances would be used during the drill, two from the Philippine Air Force and another two from the Joint Task Force National Capital Region.