By Johnny C. Nuñez / Philippines News Agency
LEGAZPI CITY—Multiawarded Team Albay will host the first ever multinational humanitarian disaster-response assistance exercises under the mutual defense treaty of the Pacific Partnership 2016 scheduled in the second quarter of next year.
The event will be participated in by teams from the Philippines, the US, Japan and Australia. This was relayed during a recent visit to Albay Gov. Joey S. Salceda by representatives of the Joint United States Military Advisory Group (Jusmag) in the country.
Salceda said Team Albay has been tasked to host the multinational group that will conduct humanitarian mission and exercises in Albay, United Nation’s global model in climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction.
Team Albay is a widely acclaimed composite disaster-response group organized by Salceda in 2008, primarily as a home-front emergency team. It now has a record of 13 humanitarian missions in calamity stricken areas around the country since then.
One of Team Albay’s most notable engagements was in Samar and Leyte in the aftermath of Typhoon Yolanda. It was the first disaster-response group that hit ground zero at the crucial time when lives can still be saved. It promptly undertook search, rescue and retrieval operations, relief distribution, health and medical services, sanitary engineering, stress debriefing, and potable-water provision for the calamity survivors.
For that feat, Team Albay was cited by the Publishers Association of the Philippines (Papi) in 2014 “as the first and the most organized response” to Yolanda “amid extreme chaos,” where it recovered a total of 622 bodies from the rubbles of the disaster.
Among the team’s exemplary initiatives, apart from search, rescue and recovery, were the deployment of a water-filtration machine that produced and delivered potable water to households, and a health emergency management unit that provided vital medical assistance and stress debriefing for the survivors.
Team Albay is a composite group of specially trained organic elements from various government agencies, including the military, police and the Office of Civil Defense in Region V.
Salceda said Team Albay has recently been chosen as a national finalist for the prestigious 2015 Galing Pook Awards, which promotes excellence in local governance through responsive initiatives, sharing of information and support and recognition of efforts that are reflective of best governance practices at the local level.
Aside from being an emergency- response group, Salceda said Team Albay has also conducted civic actions around the province, with its Team Albay Countryside Development Caravan, which “made a difference in the lives of people in geographically isolated and calamity disadvantaged areas of the province.”
The team has likewise helped organize the youth in certain parts of the province, mobilizing their idealism, energy and precious time to form or Team Albay Youth Organizations (Tayo) “which serve our people, use and hone their skills, and develop a worldview of constant kindness and selflessness—having fun by serving others,” Salceda added.
Albay had hosted many disaster and military exercises in the past, the latest was during the 2014 Philippines-United States annual joint military exercises or Balikatan, where a monthlong series of humanitarian and civic assistance activities were undertaken.