The first batch of Lopez Group DART graduates The first batch of Lopez Group DART graduate

A collaborative project of Lopez Group Business Excellence, Lopez Group Foundation Inc. (LGFI) and the ABS-CBN Emergency Unit conducted the Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (DART) training at the Eco Academy, La Mesa Eco Park in September.

The activity aimed to train and equip teams to respond to disasters and to calibrate internally the participants’ skills and decision-making during disasters that require group-wide coordination, control and operations.
The four-day activity was participated in by 44 employees from Adtel, First Philec, First Philec Solar, First Philippine Power Systems Inc., First Philec Manufacturing Technologies Corporation, First Gen Corporation, First Gen Hydro Power, FG Bukidnon, La Mesa Eco Park, La Mesa Watershed, First Philippine Holdings, Lopez Holdings and SKYcable.

The Lopez Group DART was patterned after ABS-CBN’s DART, which was organized after Ondoy and presently has four squads composed of seven people each. The squads are mobilized during ABSCBN’s emergency operations. Martin Aguda, head of Safety and Events Risk Management, is a member of the Lopez Group-wide disaster preparedness technical committee. He and his team drilled the Lopez Group employees on technical skills for emergency assistance and rescue, particularly during disasters like typhoons, floods, earthquakes and fires. On hand were the actual equipment, ambulances and fire trucks from the ABS-CBN Emergency Management Unit to instill maximum learning and retention.

Group heads graced the graduation ceremony and awarded certificates to their respective employees. These were Rene Luspo, VP-Corporate Security and Safety Division of ABS-CBN; Rafael Alunan, president of LGFI; Benjamin Liboro, program director of Business Excellence; Pinky R.A. Diokno, VP-HR of Lopez Holdings; and Ola Magno, manager-HR and Admin/SMS of First Philippine Realty Corporation. Lopez Group Business Excellence is considering a second run of the training in the first quarter of 2012. (A. dela Rea-Agaton)