DND, DOH honor Philippine contingent to Turkey

MANILA, Philippines — Various government agencies led by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) honored yesterday the members of the Philippine Inter-Agency Humanitarian Contingent deployed to earthquake-stricken Turkey.

Each unit that composed the contingent – the Philippine Air Force 505th Search and Rescue Group, Philippine Army’s 525th Engineer Combat Battalion, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, Department of Health and the Office of Civil Defense – received the Secretary of National Defense plaque of merit and Bakas Parangal ng Kabayanihan from the Office of Civil Defense (OCD).

Aside from the unit awards, each AFP rescuer was given a Meritorious Service Award and medals after two weeks of helping clear collapsed buildings in Turkey.

The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR) also gave each contingent member P50,000 in cash.

Senior Defense Undersecretary Carlito Galvez, Health officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire, OCD Undersecretary Ariel Nepomuceno, MMDA Chairman Romando Artes and AFP chief Gen. Andres Centino led the awarding ceremony at Camp Aguinaldo.

Centino expressed his gratitude to the members of the humanitarian contingent for their valuable contribution to the search and rescue operations in Turkey.

“May your courage, professionalism and compassion set the standards by which all public servants and Filipinos can truly be of help to our fellowmen. May this humanitarian mission and its success inspire us to be ready to help other people without hesitation,” he said.

Galvez called for further improvements in the government’s preparedness to respond to emergencies.

“What happened in Turkiye and Syria was really terrible. So we cannot be complacent in any way. Instead, let us continuously boost our disaster prevention, mitigation, response, rehabilitation and recovery efforts,” he said.