The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) will demonstrate the capability of its new state-of-the-art emergency telecommunications equipment in the coming 2017 3rd Quarter Nationwide Simultaneous Earthquake Drill (NSED) on September 27 at STRIKE Gymnasium, Bacoor City, Cavite.
The NSED is a quarterly-held exercise that aims to increase the awareness on what to do in the event of an earthquake and to improve the responsiveness of citizens and responders alike.
In support of the activity, the Department will conduct a simulation exercise for its Rapid Emergency Telecommunications Team (RETT) which will utilize the different satellite telecommunications equipment provided by the British mobile satellite company, Inmarsat, under the International Partnership Programme (IPP) of the United Kingdom Space Agency (UKSA).
The emergency telecommunications system include the Global Xpress® terminal, the latest technology in mobile satellite broadband telecommunications; Automatic-Pointing Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) terminals, Manual-Pointing BGANs terminals and the latest ISat2 mobile satellite telephones
These new equipment can be deployed in rapidly by the RETT and can be used anywhere in the Philippines.
Last week, the DSWD-RETT conducted a COMMEX and successfully tested these equipment to communicate with the different RETT in Regions III and V, National Resource Operations Center (NROC) in Pasay City, DSWD Disaster Response Operations Center at the Central Office, and at the West Quadrant staging area located in Intramuros, Manila.
Aside from the communication exercise, personnel from the DSWD Central Office and Field Offices will also practice the duck, cover, and hold and simulate the central office earthquake evacuation protocols during the earthquake drill and participate in the #BidaAngHanda Campaign to popularize earthquake preparedness and response plans of the government and encourage the public to participate in the earthquake drill.
For his part, DSWD Officer-in-Charge (OIC) Emmanuel A. Leyco expressed the need to engage the public in disaster preparedness at all levels.
“We need to reinforce public preparedness on earthquake hazards and promote vigilance. Our goal is to encourage more people to lead good examples of resiliency and to empower them by educating them about their roles and responsibilities in disaster situations, as well as, involving them in the crafting and implementation of disaster risk reduction and management policies and programs in their own localities,” said DSWD OIC Leyco. ###
