BUTUAN CITY – Of the three participating countries namely Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Philippines, the latter was recognized to be advanced in its implementation of the Incident Command System (ICS) during the training entitled “Cycles of Workshop on Incident Command System for APEC Member Economies” from October 17-22, held in Valdivia, Chile, South America.

Office of Civil Defense (OCD) Caraga regional director Liza Mazo was given the opportunity to represent the country and share with the rest of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) member economies the Philippines’ effective strategies in implementing the Incident Command System (ICS) during disasters or emergency situations.

APEC is an inter-governmental forum for 21 member economies in the Pacific Rim that promotes free trade throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

Dir. Mazo, who chairs the Caraga Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (RDRRMC), has been considered an ICS expert and practitioner and is a member of the national cadre in the Incident Management Team (IMT) who underwent in-depth ICS training for years.

According to Dir. Mazo, the said training, which was spearheaded by the Republic of Chile, was also an opportune time to present the country’s notable accomplishments in ICS implementation with or without funding support from external resources or organizations, and how the local government units handled the previous disasters.

“It is with great honor and pleasure to represent the country during the ICS training in Chile, which was funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). There were actually three of us in OCD who are considered ICS experts; one is our assistant secretary and the other is the regional director of OCD in Region 4B. But since only one will be sent to Chile for the series of ICS workshops, Caraga was very fortunate to be chosen not only to represent the country but more importantly to share the Philippines’ ICS, especially in the Caraga region,” recalled Mazo.

Mazo bared that ICS is a common language among responders; hence, during the training, the participating APEC economies such as the Philippines, Malaysia, and Vietnam learned about Chile’s ICS command structure, significant forms being used in ICS, and the interoperability of all the response agencies, among others.

“Among the three aforementioned APEC economies, the Philippines has advanced implementation of ICS. It was the same training on ICS that we are practicing here, yet the one that I really appreciated was the use of technology—digitalization of the ICS forms, which are already integrated into their command system and database. I am optimistic that this will also be realized in the Philippines soon,” said Mazo.

Mazo also considered the said training as capability enhancement and professional growth in her career that she could also impart to the ICS practitioners in the country.

“I am actually recommending to our central office that we should also have a digitalized system in ICS. We are already equipped to handle forms manually, yet with this digitized system, we will have a more efficient, effective, and faster way of inputting all the necessary details, making our respective tasks easier and more convenient. This will just need an internet connection; however, in case the internet is not available during ICS, an intranet could also be used,” Mazo added.

When asked if the Philippines could soon realize this vision of a digitalized ICS, Dir. Mazo expressed that the country has already started creating one, with the assistance of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and other related agencies. “Yes, we can make it happen. Hopefully, this will also start in the Caraga region,” she said.

“This is in line with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s mandate on digitalization. Therefore, we should really invest in technology for ICS,” elaborated Mazo.

Meanwhile, Mazo further announced that on December 6, 2023, Caraga RDRRMC is set to conduct the ICS Summit, in which some 50 ICS practitioners from the different provinces of the region will participate. 

“There are a lot of things that we need to improve in the ICS training per se. The ICS summit should really be a continuous activity, so we could enhance our capabilities and perform better during any disaster or emergency,” she said.

The output of the ICS summit will then be submitted or endorsed by the NDRRMC through the OCD for further recommendation to improve ICS training in the country.

The ICS provides an organizational structure capable of responding to all levels of emergencies, from simple to complex. It also provides the flexibility to respond to an incident as it escalates in severity. The purpose of the ICS is to provide a common language for all emergency responders. (JPG, PIA-Caraga)