BAGUIO CITY – The Cordillera office of the Office of Civil Defense (OCD-CAR) disclosed the implementation of the incident command system (ICS) in the grassroots level will definitely boost the rescue operation procedures regionwide, especially during natural ad man-made calamities.
Andrew Alex Uy, OCD-CAR regional director, said it is very important for any organizations to effectively communicate and manage resources during crisis or emergency situation, thus, someone must have to take the lead and provide directions and control in order to establish orders out of chaos and to avoid further confusion and conflict.
“There exists a recognized system with a predetermined chain-of-command, as well as a proven structure, for an organized response to a critical incident, and the same is referred to as the Incident Command System (ICS) which uses common terminologies that is descriptive and decisive, yet not difficult to understand, in order to control personnel, resources, and communications at the scene of a critical incident,” Uy stressed.
Since ICS is now known to be a helpful tool in managing a critical incident, the OCD-CAR is consistently conducting trainings to realize and implement its purpose. A five-day training on Integrated Planning Course on ICS was held recently and it was aimed at implementing proper and organized management on and after disaster and calamities incident rescue operations.
Uy revealed ICS is used as an on-scene Disaster Response and Management Mechanism under the Philippines Disaster Risk Reduction and Management System (PDRRMS). ICS Cadre are the ones who take the lead in undertaking the ICS capacity building and development program under the leadership of the Office of Civil Defense (OCD).
The said practicum was participated by personnel from the Philippine National Police (PNP), Philippine Air Force (PAF), Philippine Army, Philippine Navy, and Local DRRMCs of Ifugao and City DRRMC of Baguio. The training covers several types of modules and workshops that contain the importance and main objectives of ICS. Through this method, agencies can work together using common terminology and will know the right resources needed in an operating procedure in a single or unified incident.
Jake Belino, training instructor and member of the Incident Management Team said, “IMT is activated to conduct ICS to organize and identify the need to manage certain incident as well as to control the situation”. He also said “One reason behind ICS training is to have organized tactical directions for all resources at para maalagaan din ang mga responders.”. Incident Command System is use in all kinds of occurrences depending on the severity of the situation including plan events and as well as to the necessities of local chief executive.
According to Mike Kenneth Piluden, ERM instructor, “Incident Command System is very effective in pre- plan and simple incident if its real meaning is understood by these emergency personnel’s/responders.”
ICS training also caters to command, control, and coordination of immediate emergency response procedure from disaster impact, where in saving lives and responder’s safety will always be the tap most priority.