Aurora folk pass tsunami test; E. Visayas LGUs not ready
By Tonette Orejas, Joey A. Gabieta
Published on Page A17 of the July 28, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

{excerpts}

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- SOME 1,500 residents in Baler, Aurora scored “above average” points in disaster preparedness during a tsunami drill last week, the second to be held in the country’s eastern seaboard, according to the chief of the Office of the Civil Defense in Central Luzon.

“Those who joined the exercise were really aware of the threat and what to do when the event strikes. They demonstrated a high level of cooperation,” said Neri Amparo, OCD regional director.

Amparo said residents of Sitio Castillo in Barangay Sabang and Sitio Munting Gusang, Puntian, Cemento, Digisit and Ylaya in Barangay Zabali joined the drill on Saturday. These villages face the Pacific Ocean.

The first drill was held in Sitio Pinagbuhatan in Sto. Domingo, Albay, on May 17.

The villagers began an orderly evacuation when the church bell and the kolong-kolong (an empty acetylene iron tank) were struck at 3 a.m. to announce an impending tsunami, said Danilo Nieva, chief of the provincial disaster coordinating council in Aurora.

Taking along basic kitchen wares, some food and clothes, they trekked to Ermita Hill (Point Baja), which stood 50 meters above sea level, Nieva said.

Gov. Bellaflor Angara-Castillo said the retreat to Ermita Hill was a lesson from the past. This was where Franciscan missionary Jose de San Rafael ran for safety during the Dec. 27, 1735 tsunami, the friar’s accounts showed.

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"FIRST TIME IN AURORA, SECOND IN THE PHILIPPINES"

At exactly 3:00 am on July 22, 2005 people of Sitio Castillo, Brgy. Sabang and Sitio Munting Gasang, Ermita Hill, Cemento, Ilaya, Fishport and Diguisit Brgy. Zabali Baler, Aurora participated actively on the Tsunami Drill exercise held in Baler by the National Disaster Coordinating Council and the Regional disaster Coordinating Council down to the Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council, Municipal coordinating council and the barangay disaster Coordinating council. The mobilization of the people in those areas was spearheaded by Municipal and Barangay officials. This drill was conceptualized by the Regional Disaster Coordinating Council 3 and was supported by Governor Bellaflor J. Angara-Castillo, Chairwoman of the Provl. Disaster Coordinating Council.


An estimated 1,500 residents from Brgy. Sabang and Brgy. Zabali Baler, Aurora participated in the Tsunami Drill Exercise. Photo shows the people walking to the top of Ermita Hill going to higher ground as a standard operation procedure during Tsunami.

Mass Casualty Handling demonstrated by Philippine National Red Cross personnel led by volunteers Lauro Bihasa and Rading Gonzales in Aurora province.

PDCC Chairwoman Hon. Bellaflor J. Angara-Castillo speaking to the crowd on the high level of awareness of the people of Baler on Disaster Preparedness.Thus, making them Tsunami ready.

::photo and text courtesy of Provl. Disaster Coordinating Council

fyi: Albay hosts first Pacific-wide tsunami drill

Excerpts from Manila Bulletin Online written by Dr. Bernardo Villegas last July 14, 2006.

AURORA in Spanish means dawn. Aurora Province is literally at the dawn of more rapid economic development after decades of neglect, as its present leaders are mobilizing resources to give a major push to countryside and agricultural development.
Last May 26-29, I made a sentimental journey to Baler. Accompanying me in the harrowing 8-hour land trip was my 97-year-old mother who last saw Baler some 65 years ago. In 19401941, just before the outbreak of the Second World War in the Philippines, my parents and their first three children moved to Baler where my father worked as a young rural doctor in an anti-malaria unit in this remote outpost in the Pacific Ocean. I was barely two years old. My brother Eddie was newly born and actually got baptized in the Baler church, with the late Maria Aurora Aragon Quezon as his godmother. You can imagine what great emotions my mother felt as we attended Holy Mass in the old Baler church, made famous world-wide by the Spanish soldiers who made their last stand inside the church during the SpanishAmerican War.

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