“If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail” a famous quote from Benjamin Franklin, but what happens if we have planned and it gets approved? Will it be left to accumulate dust on the shelf? For disaster preparedness related plans, this should never be the case. It needs to be disseminated, updated and inculcated to every mind of our constituents. This could improve our preparedness in times of emergency since this contains the basic protocols on how we should react, from the communication aspect, the hazards, the safe areas and the response.
As a commendable initiative, the College of Social Work and Community Development spearheaded the dissemination of their first draft of Emergency Preparedness Plan (EPP) on May 23, 2025, with the assistance from UP Resilience Institute – Institution Building Division, to their constituents for the first part of the program. The second part of the program consisted of the tabletop exercise and debriefing.
The table top exercise aimed to familiarize and practice the chain of commands, indicated in the EPP, during emergency situations; to develop decision making strategies in the occurrence of emergencies or disaster; and to implement strategies which limit the extent or severity of the emergencies or incidents such that risks on both the responders and stakeholders are minimized. IB Chief Jose Abraham Ongkiko served as the Tabletop Exercise Director for the activity. UPRI volunteers observed the EPP implementation of CSWCD Incident Management Team (IMT) and generated a list of commendable practices and opportunities for improvement which was compiled and presented for the debriefing.
