Cebu Business Park forms quick response crisis team

CONSCIOUS of the need to upgrade their crisis response capabilities, firms inside the Cebu Business Park and Ayala Center Cebu are committing their security people to form a quick response force for emergencies.

Thirty-two security guards, coming from various security agencies, were sent to the Emergency Rescue Force (ERF) by their retaining establishments. They underwent firearms proficiency training at the Casey Gun Club Firing Range yesterday.

Engineer Frederick Ygnacio property manager of the Innove IT Plaza, one of the firms supporting the ERF, said the training is the first of a series that will also include first aid and firefighting.

"The aim is to have a unit that is ready to augment the capability of the existing security force of each individual establishment," he said.

The ERF's creation was supervised by Dominador Rey and Maximiano Sumaoy, Cebu Holdings Inc. (CHI) security manager and security consultant respectively.

Training costs

CHI, which manages both the Ayala Center mall and the Cebu Business Park, is helping defray part of the training costs.

The ERF was formed a month after the mock high-rise building hostage rescue mission that operatives from the Armed Forces of the Philippines Joint Special Operations Command (J-Soc) conducted inside the Innove IT Plaza.

In that exercise, a group of armed terrorists hijacked the Innove building, and holed themselves up on the 12th floor with two hostages.

The building's security force implemented its quick response protocol, and sent out a distress signal. It then isolated the 12th floor by sealing off access to other areas and evacuating everybody else.

Two "stacks" from the J-Soc were immediately dispatched and, onboard a fast-attack chopper and under the protective coverage of snipers stationed atop adjacent high-rise buildings, "fast-roped" down to the building's roof before heading to the 12th floor.

There, they engaged the "terrorists" in a firefight that led to the mock rescue. (KNR)