U.S. Embassy News Release
January 31, 2007

U.S. Government Helps Train Public Safety Officials
to Respond to Emergency Situation Involving Chemical Weapons

Philippine law enforcement, public safety, and health officials recently completed a three-week course on safely resolving incidents involving chemical, biological, and radiological agents or weapons – otherwise known as “weapons of mass destruction” or WMD.

The “Weapons of Mass Destruction First Responder Operations” seminar was sponsored and provided by the U.S. Department of State’s Anti-terrorism Assistance Program (ATA) and is one of several training seminars conducted in the Philippines since 2005 under the ATA Program. 

Pictured above (left), participants showed their knowledge during a field exercise on Radiological Dispersal Devices (RDD), which tests response to an RDD, more commonly known as a “dirty bomb.”  The participants set up a decontamination area (pictured at left) and worked to retrieve “victims,” mitigate the contamination, and triage the wounded (pictured at right).

The course, co-sponsored and held at the Philippine Public Safety College, is designed for public safety, security, and emergency medical personnel directly responsible for responding to and safely resolving an incident involving the use of WMD.  Participants received hands-on, practical training that mixed classroom lectures with simulated emergency field exercises. 

The 30 course participants were from the Bureau of Fire Protection/Special Rescue Unit, Philippine National Police (PNP) Special Action Force, PNP Bomb Data Center, Department of Health, Metro Manila Development Authority, Armed Forces of the Philippines, Makati City government, Philippine Coast Guard, Philippine Public Safety College, and Office of Civil Defense.

In the course, participants learned to differentiate WMD incidents from other hazardous material incidents, how to recognize elements of imminent WMD threat, and steps to mitigate the impact of these emergencies.  The participants can now successfully act as “first responders” to the scene of an emergency environment that includes chemical, biological, or radiological contamination. 

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