Smart beefs up disaster response program

MANILA, Philippines - Smart Communications Inc. recently conducted a disaster response and emergency-preparedness planning workshop for select northern and central Luzon employees in partnership with the Corporate Network for Disaster Response (CNDR).

“When disaster strikes, immediate network coverage restoration is a priority because communication plays a vital role in disaster response. Hence, we want to prepare and enhance the skills of our personnel who are often among the first on the scene,” explained Smart Public Affairs Group head Ramon Isberto.

Isberto said that aside from restoring communications in the affected area, Smart employees also set up and man Libreng Tawag facilities and conduct relief operations.

Employees from Smart’s Customer Care, Consumer Sales, Security, Distributor Business Management, and Network and Platforms Services Division underwent the two-day workshop.

“By undergoing this exercise, Smart aims to systematize the company’s disaster response plan to enable its employees to respond accordingly. This would increase the readiness of the company to extend emergency assistance in times of disasters,” Isberto said.

During the workshop, participants drafted a one-year plan that included activities meant to ensure efficient delivery of emergency assistance.

The plan will initially be implemented in northern and central Luzon, which are considered high-risk as they are often visited by typhoons and flash floods.

“One of the objectives of our Community Care program is to build and strengthen relationships with local communities. The concepts we learned from the workshop will help us in properly providing assistance to affected subscribers, when calamity strikes,” said Hazel Amoyan, Smart Customer Experience regional manager for northern and central Luzon.

During the workshop, the participants from the different units were also able to determine where they overlap in terms of functions and streamline processes to strengthen disaster response.

“We also expect that having a concrete disaster response plan would improve the response time during disasters because we have already identified the role of each team,” said Network and Platforms Services Division supervisor Sit Echalar.

CNDR ACCORD-2 project director Marieta Alcid lauded Smart for having employees undergo disaster preparedness training.

“By engaging in a disaster response planning workshop, Smart shows that the company goes beyond relief operations, which is the usual practice of private organizations, to a preparedness-oriented perspective,” she said.

It is important that companies institutionalize a disaster response and emergency preparedness plan to ensure its sustainability “even when there is a change in personnel involved in the company’s disaster response efforts,” she added.

Smart’s involvement in disaster preparedness and emergency response began in 1998 when Smart engineers dispatched to a plane crash on Mt. Sumagaya in Gingoog City, Misamis Oriental went beyond troubleshooting to provide free calling stations for the use of families of the victims, members of the search, rescue and retrieval operations, and the media.

Since then, Smart has been an active partner of the Philippine National Red Cross during disaster response and emergency preparedness activities.

The company provides communication support for responding agencies as well as those affected during disasters under Kabalikat, its corporate social responsibility and community service program.

Kabalikat sa Kaligtasan initiatives also include the deployment of employee-volunteers during times of disasters, and support for private and government initiatives that prepare communities and help them cope with calamities and disasters.