November 27th, 2024
Multi-awarded humanitarian group Team Albay has once more proven itself as a model for unified disaster response and recovery with its 250-strong mission to Catanduanes in the aftermath of Supertyphoon Pepito, living up to its 2015 Galing Pook Award, the highest civil-society-given award for innovations in local governance.
Team Albay, through the Albay in Action and Compassion for Catanduanes (A2C2) mission headed by Albay Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda, provided the northern municipalities of Pandan, Panganiban, Gigmoto, Caramoran, Bagamanoc, and Viga (PAPAGICABAVI) with essential services such as medical and hospital aids, psychosocial support, water sanitation through water lorries and water filtration tanks, internet connectivity through six Starlink sets, and agricultural rehabilitation through hybrid palay seeds.
The team will also be distributing large-scale humanitarian aid, including rebuilding materials, hot meals, food supplies, and fuel replenishment.
Salceda said the mission is backed by a P15-million budget he primarily sourced from donors and personal resources, and P6 million in hospital funding support from his budget with the Department of Health.
Albay mayors, headed by League of Municipalities of the Philippines-Albay Chapter President Adrian Salceda also supplemented Team Albay with additional personnel and resources. Polangui and Sto. Domingo towns also lent water sanitation equipment donated earlier by Maynilad following Typhoon Kristine, Salceda reported.
In its most recent and biggest deployment to Catanduanes, Team Albay included 20 personnel from Jaime Berces Hospital, 14 from LGU Polangui, 12 from LGU Sto. Domingo, and six from the Albay Young Farmers’ Organization, nine from the staff of Salceda’s district office, 11 personnel from the Philippine Coast Guard, 10 from the Philippine National Police, 38 medical staff from Tanchuling Hospital, and 60 youth volunteers from Team Albay Youth Organizations (TAYO).
Team Albay started arriving in Catanduanes on November 22 and has since provided continuous care and assistance to affected residents.
ZMI Hospital will also be deploying 20 personnel, including 4 physicians, while the Bicol Regional Hospital and Medical Center (BRHMC) has also deployed personnel to augment Catanduanes Eastern Bicol Medical Center (EBMC).
Catanduanes Governor Boboy Cua acknowledged Team Albay’s efforts, welcoming the delegation on the evening of November 22. “Diyos mabalos sa pag-alalay sa kapwa bikolano. Mabalos, Cong. Joey!” Cua said in a Facebook post.
Team Albay has gone around the country for humanitarian missions since Salceda, then governor, organized it in 2007. In 2013, it was among the first humanitarian missions to reach Tacloban in the aftermath of Typhoon Yolanda.
The Galing Pook Awards describes Team Albay’s approach as follows: “In 2007, Team Albay was formed as a community driven, disaster preparedness, volunteer corps that can mobilize within 24 hours and be the first unit to arrive on the scene of a disaster and provide humanitarian relief to critical areas.”
“What is innovative is the pooling of resources for Team Albay. Through its partnership with the LGU, the Team is also permitted to access the local disaster risk reduction and management fund. Through the TACDEC program – a one stop shop strategy – and the pooling of logistical resources, Team Albay can stay on top of disasters before they strike and also help in the economic development of communities,” the awards continues.
Even the 2013 Commission on Audit report for the Provincial Government of Albay under Salceda cited Team Albay as a highlighted accomplishment of the province, stating that “since the Province of Albay was spared from disastrous calamities, Team Albay was able to provide humanitarian assistance to calamity-stricken areas, namely, San Pedro Laguna for flood, Bohol for earthquake, and Leyte-Samar for supertyphoon Yolanda”.
“Because of these innovative and proactive approaches in DRR/CCA, APSEMO [Albay Public Safety and Emergency Management Office] was chosen as one of the awardees of the Civil Service Commission Heroes Award Programs under PAGASA Category in September 2013,” the report said.
Salceda said Team Albay’s approach stems from learnings in supertyphoon Yolanda in Tacloban primarily, where a massive disaster also severely affected rescuers, medical personnel, and other critical responders, and where a temporary breakdown of essential services requires immediate augmentation from outside.
With such a situation, Team Albay had to take over the management of hospitals and provide communication and mobility assets to even national government agencies in the immediate days following Yolanda. The team was the first fully integrated disaster response mission to arrive at ground zero in that event.
Team Albay was also part of Albay’s all-encompassing DRR and CCA efforts, which won the province several national and international awards including the Gawad Kalasag Hall of Fame Award by the NDRRMC and as the Best Governed Province (Top 1 of 80) by the DILG, and which resulted in Salceda being named a United Nations Senior Global Champion for Disaster Risk Reduction in 2011 and Co-Chairman of the UN Green Climate Fund in 2013.