ARMM modern emergency unit building to rise in Cotabato City

• Source:http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?nid=2&rid=847795
• Wednesday, January 20, 2016

(PNA), FFC/NYP/EOF

COTABATO CITY (PNA) -- To make an important agency in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) to function quickly and organize its emergency response, officials on Monday launched the construction of a PHP38.6 million operations center of the Humanitarian Emergency Assistance and Response Team (HEART), officials said.

The HEART, established by ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman in 2013, is an emergency and disaster response unit to quickly attend to needs of its constituents in times of disaster, both man-made and natural calamities.

Hataman led the groundbreaking rites for the building that will house all offices and agencies under ARMM-HEART. It also include a modern monitoring facilities and conference room for training of its personnel on life saving activities.

Hataman said the building will rise inside the ARMM regional center in Cotabato City, complete with operation planning room, a conference room, staff quarters, and a warehouse, where HEART workers are to keep their rescue gears and relief supplies ready for dispersal to calamity-stricken areas.

He told reporters the national government will fund the project.

Hataman said while the emergency team's priority is ARMM provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, it has also served areas outside ARMM, like Zamboaonga City during a man-made calamity in 2013 and the Pablo and Yolanda typhoon victims in other parts of Mindanao and Visayas.

"Emergency response recognizes no boundaries, so we are ready," he said.