Lahat ng mga pampublikong paaralan sa buong bansa ay dapat magsagawa ng unannounced fire at earthquake drills, ayon sa Department of Education (DepEd).
Batay sa DepEd Order (DO) 53, na nilagdaan ni Vice President at Education Secretary Sara Duterte noong Biyernes, ang mga drills na ito ay naglalayong tiyakin ang kahandaan ng mga mag-aaral sa kalamidad.
“Aligned with the Department’s commitment of ensuring [the] safety and well-being of learners and school personnel, all public schools are hereby required to conduct unannounced earthquake and fire drills every first and third week of every month,” ayon sa DO.
Para sa wastong koordinasyon, ang Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Coordinators sa mga paaralan ay dapat makipag tulungan sa mga pinuno ng paaralan para sa ” “planning, implementation at monitoring.”
“These drills are to ensure that learners are properly guided on what should be done during and after an earthquake or occurrences of fire in schools. All schools in the National Capital Region (NCR), Rizal, Cavite, Laguna, and Bulacan, shall create a separate and specific disaster plan for a magnitude 7 or higher earthquake,” ayon pa rin sa DO..
Ipinag-utos ng DepEd sa mga paaralan na ibunyag ang mga planong ito ng detalyado, sakaling may kinalaman ito sa “mass casualties.”
“The plan shall specifically lay down the response should there be a scenario involving mass casualties of learners and personnel,” dagdag nito.
“Local drills and simulative exercises are preventive measures that familiarize escape routes and reinforce proper actions in the occurrence of a calamity. Frequent practice of these drills and exercises would eventually turn these actions into automatic reflexes that would manifest during an actual calamity,” ayon sa salaysay ng DepEd.
Si Venus L Peñaflor ay naging editor-in-chief ng Newsworld, isang lokal na pahayagan ng Laguna. Publisher din siya ng Daystar Gazette at Tutubi News Magazine. Siya ay isa ring pintor at doll face designer ng Ninay Dolls, ang unang Manikang Pilipino. Kasali siya sa DesignCrowd sa rank na #305 sa 640,000 graphic designers sa buong daigdig. Kasama din siya sa unang Local TV Broadcast sa Laguna na Beyond Manila. Aktibong kasapi siya ng San Pablo Jaycees Senate bilang isang JCI Senator.
