CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao (MindaNews / 30 March) – New graduates of a rescue and firefighting course in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao are willing to help out and go to Mt. Apo if requested, an ARMM official said.
Lawyer Laisa Alamia, ARMM executive secretary, said the volunteers will form part of the ARMM’s Humanitarian Emergency Action Response Team (HEART).
“If there are large scale calamities like we have in Mt. Apo, we are willing to help out if they’d ask. ARMM HEART will help facilitate in sending volunteers,” Alamia added.
She said the volunteers are on standby and ready to respond should their expertise be needed in the ongoing forest fire that hit the country’s highest peak.
Col. Bernie Langub, 6th Infantry Division Training School director, said the graduates coming from different villages of the ARMM are now fully equipped to respond in any emergencies in the air, land and sea.
“There’s no stronger than the heart of volunteers. Now they can respond to any calamity,” he added.
Alamia said the volunteers were trained to respond to natural and man-made calamities, which are both common in ARMM’s provinces, namely, Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.
She said the training for volunteers was conceptualized to respond to the possible effects of climate change like massive flooding and forest fire.