BONTOC, Mountain Province – Employees of the municipal government who are members of the Bontoc Emergency Response Team (BERT), youth leaders, and personnel from Bontoc Municipal Fire Station underwent a Land Navigation Training from April 19-21, 2022.
Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Officer Johanna Padaen who represented Mayor Franklin Odsey encouraged the participants to apply and share the knowledge and skills that they will learn from the three-day training.
Padaen explained that the municipal government ,through the MDRMM Office, initiated the training due to the number of actual cases that the MDRRMC had been responding to, such as the reports on missing persons. She added that proper or accurate locations of search and rescue operations or proper location of the incident are one of the important factors during SAR operations.
Thus, the training aims to capacitate the participants with the necessary knowledge and skills in map reading and land navigation in any given situation and actual operations.
The trainers are from the Tactical Operations Group 1 (TOG1), Philippine Air Force at Loakan Airport, Baguio City. They are TSGT Jake P. Belino, Non-Commissioned Officer-in-Charge for Civil Tactical Operations Wing of Northern Luzon, Philippine Air Force, and A2C Joseph Russel Garcia.
The three-day training involved interactive lectures, tabletop exercises, and simulation exercises.
Mayor Odsey immediately approved the conduct of the training whose budget was sourced from the 5 percent Calamity Fund of the municipal government recognizing the need to continuously enhance the capabilities of responders in search and rescue operations.
