As hope for finding survivor diminishes, the Philippine government decided that it will no longer send a second batch of search and rescue (SAR) responders to Turkiye a week after it was devastated by a powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake.
Assistant Secretary Bernardo Rafaelito Alejandro IV, deputy administrator for operations of the Office of Civil Defense (OCD), said the government will instead send additional non-food donations to assist the survivors of the earthquake, on top of the 11,205 blankets, 5,000 bonnets, and 420 gloves brought by the first batch of responders.
“With the information on that courtesy of the government, we’ll no longer send a second contingent coming from us,” Alejandro said in a press briefing at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City on Monday, Feb. 13.
“Ang nasabi nila, ‘yung life-saving time lumampas na (What they said was that the life-saving time already lapsed),” he added.
Alejandro said this was relayed to him by Department of National Defense (DND) Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. on Sunday, Feb. 12.
In a previous statement, the OCD said that the international standard of deployment of a response team to a calamity-hit area is within 48 hours.
Further, there is still no decision as to whether or not the two-week deployment of the contingent will be extended.
“Wala pang (There is still no) word on that,” Alejandro said. “Tignan natin kung anong progress, it’s still early to tell kung ma-extend ‘yung two weeks (Let us see what the progress will be, it’s still early to tell if the two-week period will be extended).
Meanwhile, the government will also send non-food items to quake-hit Syria instead of fielding a response team to assist in search, rescue and retrieval operations. Like Turkey, Syria also sent a flash request for assistance from the Philippine government after the quake struck on Feb. 6.
In action
It was the fourth day of operation by the Philippine contingent in the southern province of Adiyaman and so far, they were able to search and assess 20 collapsed buildings, and attend to 55 patients.
“Basically ang nakita natin dito (what we saw here) is, Adiyaman is full of collapsed high-rise buildings. We are expecting that based on the information that we received, marami po talaga ang casualty (there are really many casualties),” said Philippine Air Force (PAF) Major Erwen Diploma, commander of the Philippine contingent to Turkiye.
Dr. Alfonso Danac, team leader of the Philippine emergency medical team to Turkiye, said the Turkish people were grateful since the field hospital established by the Philippine team proved to be crucial as many hospitals and pharmacies in Turkiye were non-operational.
“They are suffering pero wala po silang mapuntahan na mga ospital (but they could not find any hospital). Tayo po ang nagpo-provide ng medical services for them (We provided their medical services),” Danac said.
Danac said they expect that the number of patients that they will cater to will further increase as the situation lingers.
“Usually kapag ganyan ang disaster, habang tumatagal dumadami ang may problema sa pag-ubo, paghinga, may nagkaka-diarrhea (Usually during a disaster, the longer the situation remains the more health problems occur like cases of cough, difficulty in breathing, and diarrhea),” he explained.
“In terms of logistics, so far we are okay for the next seven to 10 days although nagpaano na kami na tingin namin mga gamot na kailangan dagdagan (we already for additional supply of medicines that we need),” he added.
Mr. Ranny Magno, team leader of the urban search and rescue (USAR) team, said the responders remain in high spirits despite the challenges in the weather and language barrier.
The team had to endure an extreme cold temperate of -4 degrees Celsius and the language barrier since some of the Turkish people cannot speak English. Luckily, there were other volunteers who can speak English that helped the Fiipino responders to communicate with the Turkish people.
“They remain in high morale despite of the challenges,” Magno said.