“Earthshaking” might be an exaggerated a term but since the event is the first of its kind to be conducted in Cebu through the Emergency Rescue Unit Foundation (ERUF) in partnership with a remarkable co-operative, the “Collapsed Structure Search and Rescue (CSSR)” training course cannot be described in lesser terms.
It is something that local government units, business establishments, people’s organizations and the general public should take careful notice of.
I got wind of the CSSR through retired Air Force Major General Gilbert Llanto, who chairs the ACDI Multipurpose Cooperative based in Taguig City, Metro Manila.
Our meeting took place during the forum sponsored by Congress and the Cooperative Development Authority last June 18 at the Capitol Social Hall.
ACDI is on top of the co-op totem pole, with more than 93,000 members, assets of P13 billion and share capital of more than P4 billion.
Chairman Llanto is a zealous co-op leader who does not let any opportunity to trumpet the gains of the sector pass by so that when I invited him to grace “Co-op TV,” he accepted without much fuss.
The episode with the former Air Force official airs on August 1, the first year anniversary of the advocacy show produced by CCTN Channel 47.
The CSSR is part of ACDI’s social service, what capitalist-driven businesses call “corporate social responsibility” or CSR. And what a social service this is in the context of the killer quake that hit Nepal in April 2015.
Also known as the Gorkha earthquake, it is considered one of the worst natural disasters in recent history.
Perhaps only supertyphoon Yolanda that hit the Visayas in November 2013 could match the magnitude of its devastation: More than 10,000 people killed and more than 23,000 injured.
Hundreds of thousands of people left homeless with entire communities flattened, centuries-old buildings and heritage sites destroyed.
The economic losses to the poor country is staggering at more than $5 billion.
What makes the Nepal calamity doubly disastrous is the fact that for years, scientists had warned that the country was vulnerable to a major earthquake owing to the “central seismic gap in the Himalayan fault system,” which was discovered when Nepal was hit by a strong earthquake in 1934.
In other words, the April 2015 earthquake which was followed by a major aftershock in May, was not totally unexpected.
This wisdom in hindsight may be of little use for Nepalese but not for Filipinos after Philvolcs released the atlas of the Greater Metro Manila Area Valley Fault System last May.
The report was supposed to be in preparation for a 7.2 magnitude earthquake that can generate an intensity 8 tremor, with catastrophic results in loss of lives and damage to property.
I wonder if the national government has set directions for local government units in terms of mitigating risk and equipping local agencies in search and rescue operations in the event of a big one—the hypothetical intensity 8 but which seems more real now after the Nepal catastrophe and the 7.2 magnitude that hit Bohol and Cebu in October 2013.
The 8-day course with ACDI Multipurpose Cooperative as host organization and ERUF as lead trainors starts on August 6.
The activity aims “to train volunteer participants with the techniques and methods necessary for searching, locating, stabilizing and extricating victims trapped in collapsed structures, using the safest and most appropriate procedures for the rescuers as well as the victims.”
The training coordinator is retired PAF Brig. General Jaime Largo, a native of Minglanilla, Cebu, who has a wide experience in search and rescue operations in calamitous situations, in particular the 1990 earthquake that devastated Baguio City and hit the Hyatt Terraces Baguio.
In a visit to this corner yesterday at the CCTN offices, Largo still remembers that he flew a C-130 to rescue tourists and hotel guests and airlifted about 200 victims to safety in that fateful day of July 16 twenty five years ago.
Commenting on the Nepal experience, General Largo said the search and rescue operations was so chaotic that the system caused more lives lost. Largo is likewise a committed co-operator and is in charge of ACDI’s special projects.
Lead trainor is Mr. Medardo Batiller of ERUF who will bring in nine other experts to impart lessons on organizing and starting a CSSR operation; construction materials, structures and damage types; operational safety; search and location techniques; tools, equipment and accessories; rescue strategies and techniques; shoring methods; lifting and stabilizing loads; pre-hospital treatment; and practice exercise.
At least 39 volunteers from ACDI Multipurpose Cooperative, Philippine State College of Aeronautics, Air Force Reserve Command, 205th Tactical Helicopter Wing, and 2nd Air Division are expected to attend the training course.
Venue is the ACDI Lot 663-G in Sangi Road, barangay Pajo, Lapu-Lapu City.
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