Noel Toribio Ilao, director of the Equipment Bureau at the Philippine Department of Public Works and Highways, speaks with Fleet News Group podcast host Caroline Falls about a fleet of land vehicles, barges and boats that cater for infrastructure and rescue in the 7000-island nation.
The Philippines is one of the most disaster prone countries in the world,” said Ilao, adding, “ I think we’re number three. We are visited by different calamities — on the natural side, we have typhoons, we are lying in an earthquake belt, which is the Pacific Ring of Fire.”
The bureau he works for is responsible for the design and construction of all public facilities infrastructure in the Philippines. His fleet comprises more than 6200 units, including some 330 water-based equipment, scattered all over the country.
In 2022, the Philippine Government passed a law pertaining to electric vehicles so that the equipment bureau, among all other government departments, is looking to transition 5 percent of its fleet to electric by 2030.
That’s about 300 units that need to be disposed of and replaced with electric power.
We talked on the sidelines of the March fleet conference organised by the Institute of Public Works Engineering Australasia (IPWEA). Ilao was a guest speaker at the 2019 IPWEA fleet conference. He said IPWEA had turned into a great resource for his bureau and cited adoption of the Australia-based organisation’s asset management model.
Ilao also talks about collaboration with the Australian Government and the Japanese Government. He said the US Army Corps engineering unit is helping them build capability in dredging engineering.
“We need to be equipped with the right knowledge, with the right technology, with the right strategy since it is tantamount upon us that we need to properly utilise the resources given to us by the government and deliver those resources for those areas who are suffering from over flooding, from the decrease in the channel capacity of waterways all over the country. So we need to look for partners to better equip us and to help us strategically deliver the mandate given to us.”
Ilao talks about major catastrophes that have hit the Philippines, including the biggest — Typhoon Haiyan which killed more than 1500 people in 2013.
“Imagine hundreds of assets to be mobilised from 300 kilometres inter Island movement,” said Ilao, who joined the bureau more than 20 years ago. “We were able to handle the requirements so that we could make all the roads passable again, so that relief operations could start and, and sadly, move dead people to their rightful places.”
