By Priam Nepomuceno | Philippine News Agency
A ranking Office of Civil Defense (OCD) official on Wednesday said the country’s uniformed services have been mobilized to help the ongoing response missions following the magnitude 6.9 earthquake that hit Bogo City, Cebu and other nearby provinces late Tuesday night.
“Rest assured, we have already mobilized and deployed responding units from our uniformed personnel or uniform services,” OCD deputy administrator for administration Assistant Secretary Bernardo Rafaelito Alejandro IV said in an online press briefing.
Uniformed services include the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), the Philippine National Police (PNP), and the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP).
Alejandro said among those immediately deployed were troops from the Philippine Army’s 525th Combat Engineer Battalion along with rescue teams from the Philippine Air Force’s (PAF) 505th Search and Rescue Group.
He said these personnel were sent via PAF’s C-130 transport aircraft and are now on the ground in the northern part of Cebu to augment rescue units.
In a statement, PAF spokesperson Col. Ma. Christina Basco said they also mobilized ‘Black Hawk’ helicopters from the 205th Tactical Helicopter Wing to carry out rapid damage assessment and needs analysis missions, as well as airlifted rescue and medical teams, equipment, and relief goods to hardest-hit areas.”
The PCG, meanwhile, is sending two of its ships to help in the ongoing relief missions, according to Alejandro.
“Right now, the center of gravity is northern Cebu, specifically Bogo City and its neighboring municipalities,” the OCD official said.
In an interview on PTV-4’s “Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon,” Alejandro said the number of reported fatalities currently “undergoing validation and verification” has now reached 69.
He said 30 of the reported deaths are from Bogo City, 22 from San Remigio, 10 from Medellin, five in Tabogon, and one fatality each in Sogod and Tabuelan, all in Cebu province.
In a statement, AFP spokesperson Col. Francel Margareth Padilla said search and rescue operations are now ongoing in affected areas in Cebu, with military units working in coordination with local authorities and first responders.
“To augment these efforts, almost 1,600 teams composed of active military personnel, CAFGU (Citizen Armed Forces Geographical Unit) Active Auxiliary members, and reservists are on standby for immediate deployment,” Padilla said, adding that the AFP has placed its land, air, and sea assets on standby to support humanitarian assistance and disaster response (HADR) operations as needed.
“The AFP assures the public of our full commitment to support interagency response operations and to work with other government agencies in ensuring the safety and welfare of our people,” she said.
