BAGUIO CITY – The Baguio Country Club underscored the importance of having an internal emergency response mechanism within the city’s only exclusive club to contribute in efforts in instilling disaster resilience among its officers and employees.
BCC general manager Anthony de Leon disclosed the club’s management heavily invested in equipping their officials and employees in emergency response so that they could immediately attend to the needs of their customers during emergency situations.
He explained that each club official and employee has been assigned tasks to do during emergency situations as embodied in their task cards to ensure that their customers will be given the required immediate attention when the situation so requires.
“We are elated that some tourism-related establishments in the city are also investing on internal emergency response to make sure that their customers will be spared from the occurrence of untoward incidents during emergency situations,” de Leon stressed.
Last July 16, 2018, BCC conducted an earthquake drill to test the internal response capabilities of its workers in a simulated disaster situation the result of which was considered by assessors as successful.
De Leon said the conduct of the annual earthquake drill during the commemoration of the 1990 killer trembler serves as a constant reminder for its officials and staff and even customers of the need to be always prepared for any untoward incident that could happen to help save life and limb from the serious negative effects of disasters.
According to him, BCC was one of the hardest hit structures in the city during the July 16, 1990 killer earthquake which significantly affected the club’s operations for quite some time before the situation in the city started to slowly normalize with the influx of foreign and local emergency responders that utilized various land and air assets to bring relief goods to the devastated areas in the city.
The BCC official pointed out that internal emergency response is being advocated in the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Baguio (HRAB) to empower similarly situated establishments to consider investing in equipping their officers and employees with the needed skills and knowledge for them to understand their prescribed roles during emergency situations.
BCC acquired a fire truck five years ago plus additional emergency response equipment being used by its officials and employees when responding to emergency situations that transpire inside the exclusive club or even during the onslaught of natural calamities that strike anytime.
De Leon claimed the club updated its internal emergency response capability with trained workers who could immediately respond in the case of the presence of an active shooter inside the facility to prevent him or her from wreaking havoc while awaiting the response of concerned responders coming from outside the club.
He said preparedness is the most important aspect of safety that is why the club continues to invest in capacity building programs and projects that are geared towards making people ready to respond to emergency situations.
By Dexter A. See
