KORONADAL CITY – The two-day Hatid Tulong Grand Send-Off Batch 2 conducted in the province of South Cotabato was a big success after at least 508 individuals composed of 491 Locally Stranded Individuals(LSIs) in Region 12 and 17 Mis-declared LSIs from the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) were able to come home from Metro Manila.
Aside from the LSIs from Region 12 coming from the provinces of South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani, and General Santos City, the Hatid Tulong program was also able to process 48 drivers and crews of the 23 buses of Partas Bus Lines.
For South Cotabato, a total of 137 LSIs were able to go home. These include Lake Sebu, 26; Norala, 11; Polomolok, 9; Sto. Nino, 3; Surallah, 20; Tboli, 2; Tampakan, 3; Tantangan, 16; Tupi, 21 ; and Koronadal, 19.
During the Close Meeting of the Incident Management Team (IMT) for the two-day event on July 27-28, 2020, IPHO Chief Dr. Rogelio Aturdido Jr. as one of the Incident Commanders turned –over the documents to PSSG Roderick B Prudente, Emergency Operations Center (EOC) Manager.
Aturdido said, there is so much learning gained from the Hatid-Tulong initiative considering it is the first time that the IMT handled and experience how to manage this kind of event.
“Iba pala ang theory sa actual. Let us grow from this experience.” He said,
Aturdido admits the most of the IMT members have minimal training on Incident Command System but hopes more training will come soon for everyone to attend.
The IMT was able to serve for the Hatid-Tulong, which is an initiative of the Office of the President for the following period:
July 27, 2020, at 2:00 pm
July 28, 2020, at 6:00 AM
July 28, 2020, at 9:30 am
and July 29, 2020, at 8:00 am.
Proper coordination among members of the team was undertaken to see to it that the planned objectives were properly delivered, such as, to ensure the safety of all responders, ensure the safety of tall LSIs and that they are all accounted for; ensure proper decontamination of all transport vehicles and luggage; ensure food provision for all LSIs, drivers, and escorts; ensure the safe return of the Presidential Management Staff-arranged buses and drivers/crew to their place of origin; and, ensure proper documentation of events and activities.
Based on the incident briefing of the ICS, the conduct of the LSI processing throughout the duration of the incident was generally peaceful with no untoward incident.
Early this month the first Batch of the Hatid-Tulong program arrived at the New Sultan Kudarat Provincial Hospital in Isulan, Sultan Kudarat Province aboard 30 Partas buses. There were at least 600 LSIs beneficiaries availed of the Hatid Tulong Initiative of the Office of the President to Region 12 and part of BARMM.
