On December 25, 2017, when most people were busy celebrating Christmas Day with their loved ones, a team of disaster responders from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) flew to the province of Lanao Del Norte, Northern Mindanao to carry out an important mission.

The team was tasked to help in the disaster relief operations of the Department for families who had been affected by Severe Tropical Storm Vinta, one of the strongest and deadliest storms that battered the country in 2017.

‘Vinta,’ which entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) on December 20 when the country was still reeling from the damage wrought by Tropical Depression Urduja, unleashed intense rainfall that triggered severe flooding and landslides in parts of Visayas and several regions in Mindanao. This resulted in the displacement of thousands of families, damaged houses and infrastructure, and even loss of hundreds of lives recorded in the hardest-hit areas of Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur.

Based on DSWD data, about 14,000 families or 60,000 individuals spent Christmas Eve in temporary shelters due to the tropical storm.

The disaster responders, who are part of the DSWD Central Office Rapid Emergency Telecommunications Team (RETT), flew to Lanao del Norte aboard the C130 airplane of the Philippine Air Force, bringing with them the emergency telecommunication equipment of the DSWD and additional relief assistance from the Department, including family food packs, laminated sacks, and blankets.

Relief assistance from the DSWD is being loaded to the C130 airplane of the Philippine Air Force.

The team’s specific mission was to go to heavily-devastated areas where communication lines had been cut off and establish emergency telecommunication, so relief and recovery efforts could be coordinated quickly and effectively.

“Facilitating faster provision of data means faster relief assistance to those affected by disasters,” explained Lawrence Anthony Dimailig, Project Development Officer of the DSWD-Disaster Response Assistance and Management Bureau (DReAMB) and a member of RETT.

“We were deployed there to respond to the request of Field Office X for rapid telecommunication support, as disaster responders on the ground could not send information on the number of affected residents because power and communication lines were down due to the tropical storm,” Dimailig added.

To identify the critical areas, the team, together with DReAMB Director Felino Castro, Assistant Director Carlos Padolina, and Field Office (FO) X Regional Director Nestor Ramos, met with Lanao Del Norte Provincial Governor Imelda Quibranza-Dimaporo and local disaster officials.

The identified areas that urgently needed relief assistance and telecommunication support were the municipalities of Tubod, Munai, and Salvador, where several houses sunk to the ground due to landslides, while many others got toppled by logs. Boulders from deforested mountains also crashed down the mountain villages in the towns and rivers of mud swept away several riverside houses.

The RETT established the Incident Command Post in the town of Tubod, the capital of the province, and from there started its emergency telecommunication operation.

Restoring communication

In the town of Munai, a bridge connecting the main road to the inner barangays was severely damaged, making it impassable for vehicles. But the fallen bridge did not stop the team from carrying out its mission to extend much-needed help to the affected families.

On December 26, the team, together with DSWD FO X disaster responders, provincial and municipal officials, and members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), crossed the damaged bridge and took the rock-strewn trail toward Barangay Pendulunan, a geographically isolated and disadvantaged area (GIDA) and one of the heavily-devastated villages in Munai.

DSWD Rapid Emergency Telecommunications Team (RETT) set up telecommunication equipment of the DSWD at Barangay Pendulunan, Munai, Lanao del Norte.

Upon reaching the town, the team did not waste time and started setting up the Department’s satellite telecommunications equipment and gadgets, which were provided to the DSWD last year by British mobile satellite company, Inmarsat, under the International Partnership Programme (IPP) of the United Kingdom Space Agency (UKSA).

The equipment and gadgets deployed to the area were the Global Xpress® terminal, the latest technology in mobile satellite broadband telecommunications which can provide high-speed internet connectivity; manual and automatic-pointing Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) terminals; and the latest ISat2 mobile satellite telephones.

For the first time since the onslaught of ‘Vinta,’ disaster responders in Brgy. Pendulunan were able to successfully send information and reports on the situation on the ground.

Meanwhile, members of the AFP, volunteers, and residents worked hand-in-hand to carry the relief goods from the DSWD across the damaged bridge to distribute to the affected households.

​Residents, volunteers, and members of the military work together to carry the DSWD family food packs across the torn-down Dalama Bridge in Munai, Lanao del Norte.

On December 27, the team went to two hard-hit barangays in the Municipality of Salvador to continue their operation.

Three rivers  passed through  the interior villages of Salvador, and it made the areas susceptible to flooding. A total of 16 barangays in the town were submerged due to the flash floods caused by ‘Vinta.’

In Barangays Mindalano and Calimudan, the DSWD RETT assessed the areas’ communication capabilities and gathered data regarding the affected population and damaged houses that may not have reached the municipal government.

“Our relief operations became more effective with the help of our newly-acquired emergency telecommunication equipment. We were able to capture the data, specifically the actual number of affected individuals in the hard-to-reach areas, which became our basis in providing relief assistance and other interventions to the victims,” Dimailig explained.

The ‘Santa Claus’ of disaster response

Responding to the call of duty even during the holidays has been among the many sacrifices of disaster responders of the DSWD.

“Paskong-pasko, nandoon kami sa disaster area. Iniwan namin yung mga pamilya namin. Ang inisip nalang namin, we were Santa Claus na magdadala ng regalong tulong sa mga tao doon (We left our families on Christmas Day to be there at the disaster area. We just thought of ourselves as the Santa Claus who would bring the gift of help to the affected families),” recalled Kim Aspillaga, another member of the RETT.

DSWD RETT on their way to Lanao Del Norte aboard the C130 plane of the Philippine Air Force on December 25, 2017.

Despite sacrificing his time with his family, Aspillaga, who has been part of RETT since last year, said he was happy to be part of the mission.

“When we returned from the mission, we were really happy. We were fulfilled. Sulit lahat ng pagod at hirap sa pagpunta sa devastated areas kasi alam naming umalis kami na nakangiti yung mga tao. Alam naming kahit papaano naibsan yung hirap na pinagdadaanan nila (All the hardships of going to the devastated areas were paid off by the smiles of the people. We left knowing that, in a way, we have helped lessen the pain they were going through),” he said.

DSWD disaster responders are on duty for 12 hours a day and are on a shifting schedule to ensure the 24/7 operations of the DReAMB, which leads the planning, coordination, and monitoring of all disaster-related response efforts of the Department.

“There is definitely a work-life imbalance in this type of job, but we cannot let go of this work. We can’t really explain, but we feel really great despite all the sacrifices,” Dimailig explained. He said that disaster response missions, like those they carried out in the hard-hit areas of tropical storm ‘Vinta’ in Lanao del Norte, make them more grounded as public servants.

“As part of the disaster response bureau of DSWD, we deal with a lot of numbers, and statistics. When we do field work, that is when we put a human face to these statistics and learn the stories behind those numbers. Because of this, we get to understand more our purpose as servants of the people under the DSWD,” he added.

Dimailig, who grew up in an informal settlement area, said he vowed to help fight poverty when he was still a child.

“Through this work, I know I get to fulfill my vow as a child, which is to help fight poverty while reducing the impact of disasters through effective disaster response,” he said.

“My aspiration is that the DSWD will eventually become the model when it comes to disaster risk reduction and management, not just in the Philippines, but internationally.”

DSWD Officer-in-Charge Emmanuel A. Leyco said that the Department’s disaster responders play an important part in the DSWD’s call to deliver ‘maagap at mapagkalingang serbisyo’ to the Filipino people.

“We recognize and laud the efforts of our disaster responders and members of our quick response teams, both at the Central Office and in our field offices, who sacrifice their time and energy even during the holidays to help the Department extend prompt and compassionate service to our fellow citizens who have been affected by the series of disasters that hit the country,” OIC Leyco said.

“Our disaster responders serve as an inspiration to their fellow public servants especially now that the DSWD continues to evolve and faces many challenges ahead. So we are really proud of them,” the Officer-in-Charge concluded. #