Gov’t agencies to discuss moves after latest North Korean missile test

Office of Civil Defense (OCD) officials and concerned government agencies will meet on Monday afternoon to discuss moves following North Korea’s recent missile test.

“Actually, mostly we are meeting to make sure that all our agencies are in place,” said Assistant Secretary Kristoffer James Purisima, OCD deputy administrator for administration. “In fact there’ll be a meeting this afternoon precisely to discuss that within OCD and with selected government agencies.”

Purisima added that the meeting would focus on information campaigns to ensure public safety.

“And basically, information campaign ito para alam ng ating mga mamamayan kung ano ang kanilang gagawin,” he added. “This is partly prevention and partly remedial, ’no. And we will make sure that we have our assets that we will have all our contingency plans in place.”

Officials, he said, were not anticipating that the country would be part of any direct attack. Still, the government had prepared its contingency and response plans.

“Set na naman ito, although we do not anticipate that [we will be] part of the direct trajectory of any launch,” he said.

“We will prepare for debris at nagagawa naman natin ito dati pa,” he added. “So, ipapaalam lang natin sa ating mga kababayan perhaps, particularly in our eastern coast kung ano ang kailangan nilang gawin, kung alin iyong evacuation shelters na available at kung anong mga municipalities ang kailangan naka-alerto para dito.”

Purisima assured the public that these preparations were normal and should not cause alarm.

“We do this all the time, parang typhoon preparations iyan, na inaalerto ng ating mga local chief executives sa kanilang dapat gawin,” he said. “And of course, part of this is our intensive information and educational campaigns.” /atm