The Philippines is one of the most disaster prone countries with an average of 25 typhoons that pass on our country that brought devastation and havoc.
With the start of the rainy season and the recent incident in Metro Manila and other Luzon provinces that were affected by the heavy downpour of rainwater that resulted to catastrophic floods and landslides, there is an urgent need to train a group or individuals the basics of disaster response in order to lessen casualties and minimize losses.
In Metro Cebu, heavy downpour of rains will result to flashfloods and landslides especially in the mountain barangays. In other regions, there are numerous fault lines and active volcanoes that may trigger a powerful earthquake and volcanic eruptions anytime and may dislocate the lives of populace and tremendous damage to properties.
With these, the Trainers of 8th Marine Brigade and 82nd Marine Battalion with their Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Response (HA/DR) Equipment’s is conducting a four (4) day Disaster Emergency Assistance and Rescue Training (DEART) to two hundred fifty (250) NROTC cadets of the University of Cebu Maritime Education and Training Center 504thNROTC Unit, Alumnos, Mambaling, Cebu City. These cadets are grouped into 30 per training session and conducted during weekends.
After completing their Basic NROTC Training, they will be enlisted and incorporated to 8th Marine Brigade and 82nd Marine Battalion and during emergency situations; they will be activated as disaster responders. This training activity is done every semester in order to maximize the number of personnel who are highly skilled and knowledgeable in Disaster Response Operations.