PASAY CITY — The Office of Civil Defense (OCD) and its partner agencies have placed their emergency response networks on heightened readiness ahead of the 49th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Leaders’ Summit and Related Summits, deploying specialized teams and equipment across Metro Manila to handle medical, fire, and disaster-related emergencies.
OCD spokesperson Director Junie Castillo stated that readiness efforts have been ongoing through the Joint Task Group on Emergency Preparedness and Response (JTGEPR), which coordinates multiple government response capabilities.
“In terms of emergency preparedness and response, we have been ready for quite some time because we have already conducted several activities leading up to this event. There have been many ASEAN ministerial meetings and other activities. Through those events, we have conducted exercises and have also seen how operations would be carried out during the ASEAN Summit,” Castillo said on Saturday, November 14.
“All hands are on deck, and our personnel are prepared,” he added.
The network includes specialized units for search and rescue, medical response, fire suppression, debris clearing, engineering operations, and emergency telecommunications.
“While the police and men in uniform are responsible for security, our task is to ensure preparedness in case of emergencies, whether medical emergencies, fire incidents, typhoons, or any other calamity scenario,” Castillo noted.
Manila is hosting this year’s meetings under the theme “Navigating Our Future, Together.” The high-level summits will run from November 16 to 18 at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Pasay City, gathering Southeast Asian leaders and dialogue partners, including China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, the United States, and the United Nations.
Specialized Equipment and Local Government Alerts
To support these operations, the OCD deployed over 100 pieces of specialized equipment on November 11. These assets include ambulances, fire engines, resource trucks, engineering machinery, transport vehicles, chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) response trucks, tactical radios, and Starlink satellite units.
While personnel and resources are heavily concentrated around the PICC and summit venues, local government units across Metro Manila are also mobilized.
“The Emergency Operations Centers of most local government units in Metro Manila have also been placed on alert. Our National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Operations Center (NDRRMOC) was already on alert status while our personnel had been deployed for almost a week already,” Castillo explained.
Regional preparations are further supported by the Metro Manila Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (MMDRRMC), which has activated its Incident Management Team and Emergency Operations Center to ensure a unified response network throughout the summit.