Despite the rain, hundreds of students and members of the administrators, faculty and staff of the College of Business and Accountancy hurriedly marched to the designated rallying points of the school campus as the siren resonated around the campus at 2 pm last Thursday, 24 September 2015.

With their hands covering their heads, students – led by their teachers – performed the “drop, cover, and hold” protocol and properly evacuated to designated safe area in the university.

Inside their classrooms, teachers also spent a portion of their class period explaining to their students on what to do during earthquakes, specifically, the “duck, cover and hold.”

The drill lasted for ten minutes and covered three buildings of the university namely: Bonoan Hall, Entrepreneurship Building, and the Burns Building. Building marshals were on hand and urged all teachers to remind their students not to panic.

Dr. Agapito Rubio, Dean of the College of Business and Accountancy, said that there was effective information dissemination about the drill, but the change of weather was not expected so the changes of PRPs were needed.

Jerico Lejano, from the Institute for Environmental Conservation & Research, who served as a marshal on the said event, revealed that there was an improvement in the conduct of the drill, and majority of the students and teachers participated.

The drill was also evaluated by Naga City Central Station Bureau of Fire Protection personnel. SFO1 Mario Reburiano Jr. said that although there were some glitches such as inobservance of the headcount and the DCH by some participants, the conduct of the Earthquake Evacuation Drill was successful.

— by Thirdy Baudin, CCD Office