Hawaiian Nat’l Guard trains local rescuers
In order for responders from state and private organizations to speak the same language in times of calamity, various institutions have undergone a training facilitated by the Hawaii National Guard (HING).
Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) Training, a 10day seminar held at the Central Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines in Cebu City, had some 93 participants both civilian and military.
Trainees comprised of representatives from the military including the 3rd and 8th Infantry Divisions of the Philippine Army, the Naval Forces Central (NAVFORCEN) of the Philippine Navy, and the 2nd Air Division (2AD) of the Philippine Air Force.
Civilian participants, on the other hand, included personnel from the Emergency Response Unit Foundation (ERUF), Philippine Red Cross- Cebu Chapter, Regional and Cebu Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.
The training ended yesterday through a graduation and closing program at CENTCOM Headquarters.
Participants underwent a series of practical exercises in disaster response specifically on rope rescue operations and shoring of collapsed structures. The combined forces of the AFP USAR and HING USAR Teams as well as subject matter experts (SMEs) from the Office of the Civil Defense-7 composed the training staff.
Cebu Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (CPDRRMO) operations officer Dennis Chiong said they will submit a proposal to the provincial government to hand down information and techniques to local government units to equip the local DRRMO since they are the first to get to the emergency site.
Santiago Sinsuan III, safety services training officer of PRC-Cebu, said he was surprised that the training involved basic rescue techniques.
”We thought that they will teach us something else. We were actually surprised that they taught us basics by using the things that are already available in our surrounding. This way, we can really respond to emergencies with whatever we have,” Sinsuan said.
He said that this training bridged the gap between military and civilian rescuers since they have different orientation and terminologies used in the field.
“Through this training, we get to understand each other more when we respond to an emergency,” the Red Cross officer explained.
Military officers, for their part, acknowledged the contribution of the training specifically in urban emergency response.
”The training aims to build and enhance the capacity of the command’s urban search and rescue operations,” CENTCOM Deputy Commander for Administration, Col. Frederick Evans Ramos, said.
Ramos, who also heads the Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief ( HADR) office of CENTCOM, said the training is also aimed to exercise interoperability with civilian rescue teams and internalize standards in rescue operations such as the incident command system (ICS).
”The string of disasters that occurred last year has taught us to always prepare for the worst. The assistance provided to us by our counterparts in the Hawaii National Guard will surely allow us to improve our craft when it comes to responding to disasters,” Col. Ramos said.
While Filipinos learned from the foreign trainers, Ramos stressed that they are also able to teach them the local techniques being “rich in experience” in terms of disaster response.
“Being among the first responders, it is the priority of your military in the Visayas to ensure that we are capable and equipped to handle rescue operations especially in the Metro Cebu areas,” he added.
Further, the activity also made possible the unification of the response language that each rescue unit is using since having undergone through the same training, they will be able to understand the terminologies used by each unit.
The training program is under the list of bilaterally approved program under the Mutual Defense Board- Security Engagement Board (MDB-SEB) of the AFP and its United States counterparts.
In May, a more advanced USAR training will be organized by US government as part of the MDBSEB.