As encouraged by UP President Angelo Jimenez through Memorandum No. PAJ 23-18, the University of the Philippines System and its constituent units participated in the National Simultaneous Earthquake Drills (NSED) scheduled for the second quarter of 2023 on 08 June 2023. In UP Diliman, the start of the drill was signaled by the siren coming from the University Health Service Ambulance and Barangay Fire Truck which went around the campus grounds at 9:00 AM.
The UP Resilience Institute (UP RI) acted as the facilitator in the said drill in UP Diliman, deploying 42 staff and interns to observe and evaluate the planning process, and preparedness of each participating unit in the campus. They specifically noted whether the participants properly executed the ‘drop, cover and hold’, and evacuated to safe areas.
The UP Diliman Incident Command Post was set up in the UP Police Force grounds, led by the incident commander Dr. Luis Maria T. Bo-ot, Vice Chancellor for Community Affairs. He was responsible for the overall coordination and direction of the drill. All participating units reported their starting time, number of participants, number of simulated casualties (minor, severe, dead), their time of return to their respective offices, and their requests to the incident command post. The communication of reports was done via radio. A total of 49 units from UP Diliman reported to the Incident Command Post.
Dr. Alfredo Mahar Francisco A. Lagmay, UP RI’s executive director, gave a debriefer to all the members of the Incident Command Post after the drill. All UP RI evaluators also held a debriefing and discussed their observations of the participating units. Moving forward, the evaluation from all participating UP constituent units will be consolidated by UP RI to be reported to the Office of the President.
By Anjanette B. Mariano (June 19, 2023)
