BY MA. THERESA LADIAO
ILOILO City – Iloilo Business Park, in collaboration with the Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO), conducted a comprehensive safety and security simulation exercise (SIMEX) on Digital Road in Mandurriao district yesterday.
The SIMEX aimed to bolster the emergency response capabilities of various teams and improve coordination with local government units (LGUs), line agencies, and township locators.
It included real-time scenarios such as robbery, hostage-taking, active shooter situations, and explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) management. Each scenario was designed to test and enhance the preparedness of the emergency response teams (ERTs) and to assess the efficacy of inter-agency coordination during emergencies.
Yolando Lago, Regional Security Manager for Megaworld in Visayas-Mindanao, emphasized the importance of the simulation: “This SIMEX tests our capability — how ready our estate, our township, is during an emergency. We have identified several areas for improvement, particularly in crowd management and traffic control.”
Reynaldo Orio, Township Manager of Iloilo Business Park, expressed satisfaction with the outcome.
“The SIMEX went well. We were able to assess whether there were any shortcomings and ensure that the actions carried out by our personnel were well-executed according to the plan,” he said
For his part, Lieutenant Colonel Lorenez Losaria, ICPO’s Deputy City Director for Operations, underscored the importance of such exercises: “This activity is intended to gauge the preparedness of our police and other government agencies in responding to incidents and emergencies.”/PN
