BUTUAN CITY, Philippines — A region-wide simultaneous earthquake drill in all public and private schools will take place in the five provinces, six cities, and all municipalities in the Caraga Region at 9 a.m. Friday.

The simultaneous earthquake drill will be spearheaded by officials and members of the Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (RDRRMC), Office of Civil Defense (OCD), local government units (LGUs), and Department Education (DepEd) in the Caraga Region.

Through the DepEd, the RDRRMC will also be holding the oratorical and extemporaneous speech contest at the Teachers Development Center in the DepEd regional office in an effort to promote the importance of disaster risk reduction and climate change (DRR-CCA) concepts and to increase student’s awareness on disaster, both natural and man made calamities.

Early this week, the city government already started its five-day civil defense exercise dubbed “Surigao Shakedown.”