16 disaster management professionals formally graduate Wednesday

• Source: http://www.mb.com.ph/16-disaster-management-professionals-formally-graduate-wednesday/
• Wednesday, August 31, 2016

(Philippine News Agency)

MANILA, Aug. 31 — Sixteen disaster management professionals, trained by the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management (AHA Centre) through its Executive Programme (ACE) formally graduated Wednesday.

The event took place at the AFP Commissioned Officers’ Club in Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City.

Office of Civil Defense administrator Ricardo Jalad said the OCD assisted the AHA Centre organizing team during the Philippine Leg of the ACE Programme’s course activities which included a leaders’ talk in the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Center and participation in the ASEAN Emergency Response and Assessment Team exercises in Subic Bay, Zambales.

Present during the graduation ceremonies were Jalad, AHA Centre executive director Said Saisal, Indonesia National Disaster Authority chief inspector Bintang Susmanto Noortjahjo, representing the chair of the ASEAN Committee on Disaster Management as well as the heads and representatives of the ASEAN diplomatic missions in Manila.

Jalad said the ACE Programme is a six-month training course which aims to provide on-the-job-training for disaster management professionals from national disaster management agencies (NDMOs) of ASEAN member states.

Included in the comprehensive courses of the program are special activities that facilitate the building of technical knowledge, master of procedures for coordinated and timely response and the planning and management of logistics for emergency response.

“The successful completion of the third batch of the ACE Programme is realized due to the joint and collaborative efforts of our partners and stakeholders,” Faisal stressed.

“We would like to extend our deepest gratitude to the ASEAN Committee on Disaster Management and its Preparedness and Response Working Group, the Government of Japan, ASEAN Secretariat, ASEAN Dialogue Partners as well as other partners that supported the ACE Programme,” he added.

“Following the footstep of the graduates, we hope that the sixteen officers of the third bath will also make good use of the knowledge and experience acquired through the programme to play a leading role in their NDMOs and to act as foundation for building a regional network for disaster management,” Japanese Ambassador to the Philippines, Kazuo Sunaga, said.

ACE Programme Batch 2016 is composed of 16 disaster management professionals, with two coming from each of the eight ASEAN member states which include Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myannar, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

The ACE Programme is supported by the Governments of Australia, Japan, New Zealand, the United States of American and various United Nations and international humanitarian agencies.