PDRF launches Philippines first emergency operations center

CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga, Philippines — The country’s first national emergency operations center (EOC) was inaugurated here yesterday by the Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation (PDRF), the leading business network in disaster management.

The PDRF, which is co-chaired by businessmen Manuel V. Pangilinan and Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, said the EOC acts as a self-sufficient operations hub that would ensure proper coordination of the private sector’s response to disasters.

“The EOC also provides alerts and updates to the PDRF network and coordinates asset inventory as well as the status of lifeline services during emergency situations. These complement government efforts and highlight private sector initiatives in all aspects of response and early recovery,” the PDRF said in a statement.

Pangilinan, who is also chief executive officer of PLDT-Smart and Metro Pacific Groups, said the PDRF builds platforms in establishing a disaster-resilient Philippines.

He said the formation of PDRF was based on the conviction that disaster management is not solely up to the government.

“The despair of one must touch us all and everyone must help,” he said.

Pangilinan and former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo led the ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by some of the business community’s top brass such as Aboitiz Equity Ventures president and chief executive officer Erramon Aboitiz, shipping magnate Doris Magsaysay-Ho, Manila Electric Co. president Oscar Reyes, MVP Group spokesman Mike Toledo, former Customs commissioner Alberto Lina and Philjets Group chairman and CEO Thierry Tea.

The central feature of the EOC is the command center, which harnesses data from local and international sources to enhance PDRF’s capacity to monitor earthquakes, tropical cyclones, volcanic eruptions and pandemics.

The command center maps out data on public infrastructure to help protect them from hazards.

In general, the whole network will provide a picture of what assets the private sector can provide.

For his part, Zobel, chairman of Ayala Corp., said a major problem in disasters is sustaining the momentum of rehabilitation, which the EOC hopes to address.

“PDRF is part of a large collaborative effort that led to realization of the need to look at the country’s response to natural disasters in a different manner and from a different perspective,” Zobel said.

Clark in Pampanga was chosen as the location for the EOC due to its proximity to the airport and the port of Subic Bay.

“It is one of the designated recovery sites identified in the government’s national contingency plan,” the PDRF said.

“The Clark EOC empowers the private sector in all aspects of disaster resilience, which is essential the safety and welfare of the Filipino people,” PDRF president Butch Meily said.

Meanwhile, PDRF chief resilience officer Guillermo Luz said the search for solutions at PDRF led them to think about resilience or the ability to bounce back.

“But we wanted to do more than bounce back. We wanted to move to a better state than what we were in. To do this, we needed to build a culture of disaster preparedness and prevention,” Luz said.

Two years ago, the PDRF launched a smaller operations center at the Shell House in Makati.