Philippines update. Saving Lives: Who needs FWEMSAR?

For a long time, it has been the conventional wisdom to expose skilled, highly trained and properly vetted personnel to extreme dangers - sometimes equal or greater than that which confronts counter-terrorist or counter-drug operations elements. Yet this is the job of Rescue, or more aptly as it is called, SAR - Search and Rescue.

We believe in the significance of SAR. However, for the benefit of both the party being rescued and the rescuer, we stand in our conviction that beyond post-disaster search and rescue or SAR during the incumbency of a disaster, it would be a positive addition to the design to introduce Forewarning and Early Measures.

United States of America for example has the SAR Task Force.  Under the SARTF are units for instance such as the United States Air Force Para Rescue. Brazil's Ministry of Defense has Operation Rescue under the defense ministry's Subsidiary Actions.

Specially trained elements of the China Coast Guard - among others - undertake SAR operations within the bounds of the People's Republic of China. Taiwan has its own CMC Taiwan Rescue.

In the Philippines, in 1990-1991, the authors were requested to form a plan for the Reactivation of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Forest Ranger Battalion. Together with the plan, also submitted were other proposals relevant to disaster response.

The reactivation of the Forest Ranger Battalion was not approved at the Department of National Defense. A good number of the proposals detailing the pressing need for modernization of defense assets, equipment and technologies, for making disaster and emergency response more effective and efficient were adopted as the department's position by then Secretary Fidel Valdez Ramos.

Today, we encourage the Philippine Government and whatever state government around the globe that usually suffer from major or mega disaster, to engage in constituting Forewarning, Early Measures, Search, Rescue, Recovery (FWEMSAR) Task Force that will be empowered by the State to undertake all means of life saving procedures, counter measures even make arrests in the prosecution of their functions, duties and responsibilities.

SAR is usually a limited action affair.  Like Special Operations (Spec Ops) and Special Warfare (Spec War) actions, SAR is highly seasonal or extremely infrequent.  Although at the time of its occurrence, the level of threat is clearly very high - both for the SAR operative and the subject being searched and recovered.

Spec Ops and Spec War operatives usually conduct relentlessly continuous training, skill refresher and crash learning sessions to hone their abilities. SAR operatives do the same.

It is highly useful however, if the conduct of these constant, continuing capacity building, some of these will be conducted on the ground.

Among the positive actions that can be done is engaging in training the people on the ground, in communities. At the portent of natural calamity, forewarning and drill -  practice or real evacuations may be conducted by the SAR operatives in the communities themselves that are predicted whether accurately or not, to be the targets of the impending disaster.

There is no issue whether the forecasted target disaster area will actually be spared from the catastrophic impact of a climatic phenomenon or any other hazard. Forecasts can sometimes miss and the important thing is that the SAR operatives are able to engage in grassroots based drills - the value of which cannot be matched by highly expensive seminars held in five- and six-star hotels, convention halls or similar venues.

Rescue happens on the ground. And rescue effectively happens before the disaster, whether the disaster hits or not, because the awareness of the import of the calamity becomes powerfully ingrained in the minds of the population and as such will strongly determine their future behavior towards forthcoming dangers.

The real future of survival does not have to consider aspects and factors beyond the concept of rescue. It just has to happen before the rescue - before disaster ever strikes and kills.

Summation. Unit to be tasked - 
Forewarning, Early Measures, Search, Rescue and Recovery Task Force (FWEMSAR TF)

Alternate nomenclature - 
FEMSARR TF, SARRFEM TF
TFFEMSAR, TF FWEMSARR

Character -
Composite Unit

Force Security -
Task Force Security and Intelligence

Fund and Equipment -
NDRRMC or in other states, the equivalent agency for disaster response

Images of SAR on the world wide web:

Invitation Letter to World GeoHazards specialists

December 9, 2013

Dear Sir / Madame,

Greetings!

This is to formally invite your attention to  our determination to hold the international conference on geohazard mapping and relevant environment issues. Our group decided to launch a campaign in 2009 for sustainable crisis hazards mapping and relevant environmental concerns after returning from Mindanao, Philippines following the end of the effort in ending the highly expensive hotel billeting by Juma’a Abu Sayyap of selected staff members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from Switzerland (Andreas Notter), Italy (Eugenio Vagni) and Philippines (Mary Jane Lacaba).

The purpose of the conference is to provide a fora within Southeast Asia for developed and developing countries, for consolidating databases, integrating and perfecting geohazard mapping and tagging - coordinates and all correlational information for disaster hot spot / safe spot zones, among others. When we began this effort, we noticed that mostly poor developing countries only, responded to our invitation. Understandably, nearly all or most of them required us to sponsor their travel and accommodations.

Our basic belief is in putting into action the requisites precluding taking of measures to prevent and mitigate both the risks of loss of lives and property and actual casualties during a disaster. Furthermore, to allow disasters to ravage our communities without prior mitigation measures becomes an extremely tedious issue due to the fact that certain quarters in the public sector are remiss in delivering aid to victims of calamities [e.g. recent super typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) here in the Philippines where it took more than one week for the government to respond].

Many of us agree to the principle shared by many of you that mitigation requires less expense and effort -

“than remediation or reconstruction actions. When mitigation and prevention are economically not feasible or when it is cheaper just to accept certain disasters (particularly those due to the most extreme events), the issue becomes an ethical one, where the decision is of how much we want to spend to avoid loss of lives.”

For this reason, we most sincerely invite your good self to participate as centers for leadership and influence, moderators or active participant-delegates in our planned conference.

We welcome your invitation to your colleagues and we hope that your respective organizations and state agencies can lend support for our undertaking in the Philippines. We fervently anticipate your most favorable reply soon.

Thank you so very much, with much privilege and honor we remain,

Faithfully yours,

Organizing Committee

Geo Hazards and Environment Summit 2014 Manila

Website:   http://summit.hazmapping.org

Email:       summit@hazmapping.org

                 hazmappingsummit@gmail.com