The Philippine National Police (PNP) is planning to send its own contingent to help in the ongoing search and rescue and other disaster response in Turkiye and Syria which were both jolted by a 7.8 magnitude quake.
PNP chief Gen. Rodolfo Azurin, Jr. said the initial assessment they made revealed that there are 56 PNP personnel who are ready for deployment anytime, adding that all of them are veterans in disaster response.
What they are just waiting for, according to Azurin, is a go-signal from the Department of National Defense, particularly the Office of Civil Defense.
"When the President said that the Philippines will be sending a contingent, we volunteered because we have personnel that are capable of conducting rescue," said Azurin.
"So we are preparing and we have about 53 personnel who are ready to be deployed to join the rescue mission but up to now we have yet to wait for the final word from the OCD and the DND," he added.
The Philippines has earlier sent an 82-man team to Turkiye who all came from various government agencies which have been tapped before in disaster response in various parts of the country.
One of them is a 12-man team from the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA).
Azurin said the deployment of an 81-man Philippine contingent to Turkiye is one of the reasons why the PNP team was not sent.
"As of yesterday (Sunday), they decided to cancel the deployment because we already have a Philippine contingent there," said Azurin.
The Philippine government, however, is yet to decide to the appeal of Syria the deployment of a separate contingent.
The strong tremor, which jolted the boundary of Turkiye and Syria, flattened buildings and other establishments. Based on the latest report, the death toll is now around 33,000.