By Annabel Consuelo Petinglay/PNA

SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique — The Antique Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO) will conduct more earthquake drills to fully orient people on things to do in times of a disaster.
Antique PDRRMO head Broderick Train on Wednesday thanked the recommendations given by the regional evaluation team during the conduct of the fourth quarter National Simultaneous Earthquake Drill (NSED) in the province.
Train said the last time an earthquake drill was conducted among the capitol employees was about five years ago.
The team pinpointed the need to conduct more drills to some 3,000 participants composed of capitol employees and elementary students of the Baybay Elementary School in San Jose de Buenavista.
“We had the NSED in the province last November 5 so that the regional evaluators would be able to see and make recommendations on how we could further strengthen our disaster response,” Train said.
The evaluation team came from different regional offices like the Office of Civil Defense (OCD), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC), among others.
Meanwhile, Sibalom Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Officer Joel Odango said they conduct earthquake drills every quarter and whenever there are barangays that request assistance for the conduct of such drills.
“We usually have our quarterly earthquake drill because of the directive of the Office of Civil Defense,” he said.
He admitted though that there is still a need for them to conduct more frequent earthquake drills in the municipal hall, barangays and schools.