GENERAL SANTOS CITY -- The Office of Civil Defense (OCD) 12 has added another batch to its roster of disaster managers and practitioners, as it stresses the need for more, especially graduates of the Incident Command System (ICS) course.
The appeal was made by OCD 12 Regional Director Raylindo S. Aniñon during the graduation ceremony of the All-Hazard Incident Management Team (AHIMT) training at the Sun City Suites in General Santos City on May 15–19, 2023.
The 5-day ICS training produced 37 graduates who are all active members of the Regional and Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Councils (DRRMCs) from Region 12, including PNP, BFP, BJMP, DILG, DepEd, DSWD, and different DRRM offices.
Aniñon congratulated the graduates who completed the fourth and final level of the ICS course, which exposed them to various scales of incidents, disasters, and even planned events.
“It is with profound gratitude that I have witnessed how this batch was groomed and created to be disaster managers. You are a welcome addition to the roster of ICS practitioners here in the region,” he added.
The OCD 12 disclosed that the lack of ICS practitioners was one of the issues identified during the roundtable discussion in the National Disaster Response Plan.
ICS is a vital tool for effective disaster response that sets its primordial concerns on the safety of responders, implements and achieves the set tactical objectives, and ensures efficient use of resources.
The training sessions were led by OCD 12 Capacity Building and Training Services (CBTS) under Sheila L. Marginado-Hallig and ICS cadres composed of BFP-Lanao del Sur Provincial Fire Marshal FSupt. Jeraniel Taporco, BFP 12's FSupt. Lowyn Amoyar, OCD 12 Rehabilitation and Recovery Management Service chief Engr. Diego Laguna, and OCD 12 Operations Section chief Adrian Mishael Gino Morallas. (SFO1 Philip C Chan/BFP-PFS)
