BAGUIO CITY (PIA) – – A team from the Office of Civil Defense – Cordillera (OCD – CAR) headed by Regional Director Andrew Alex Uy is deployed to Leyte to provide augmentation assistance to its OCD Region VIII office for the scheduled visit of Pope Francis in the province on Saturday, January 17.
With millions of Catholic devotees expected to attend the papal activities or at least to have a glimpse of Pope Francis during his Holiness visit, OCD region VIII and augmentation team from six other regional offices formed five composite Incident Management Teams (IMTs) that would direct and oversee the overall emergency preparedness activities for the Papal visit.
An IMT is a comprehensive response team essential for the overall management of any natural or human induced emergencies.
Uy shared that he will be leading the OCD-CAR IMT team under the Emergency Preparedness Response Unit of Task Force Leyte whose assignment will be at the Palo Cathedral for the Pope’s meeting with priests and other religious men and women in the province.
“As one of the engagement area of Pope Francis our duty will be to cater to all consequence or needed management of incidents that may occur in the cathedral”, Uy said.
The other scheduled activities in Leyte include an open-air mass at the Airport Tarmac, lunch with survivors of Typhoon Yolanda and blessing of the new chapel of Pope Francis Center for the Poor at the Archbishop Residence.
Meantime, as the national government gears up for all the needed preparations and security for the papal visit, President Benigno Aquino III early this week appealed for everybody’s cooperation and participation in ensuring the safety of everyone and a successful visit of Pope Francis
Pope Francis will be in the country from January 15 to 19.(JDP/CCD – PIA CAR)
