HERES ANOTHER SAVE-THE-DATE: 11/20, 6:30p, SF Phil Consulate Lila Ramos Shahani, the Head of Communications of 26 Philippine government agencies dealing with poverty and development, will address the subject of Calamities and corruption: the Filipino diaspora in an era of change at the Social Hall of the local Philippine Consulate at 447 Sutter Street in San Francisco on Wednesday, November 20, 2013 at 6:30 p.m. The public is invited. SuperstormYolanda struck the Philippines just as Shahani was leaving for the U.S. to deliver a series of lectures on the anti-poverty programs of the Philippine government at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the University of California in Berkeley (November 7-19). After learning of her lectures at the University of California in Berkeley, the US Pinoys for Good Governance invited her to speak to the local Filipino community to share her thoughts and observations about the recent natural calamity and its effect on the Philippine economy. ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTERS In accepting the invitation to speak at the local forum, jointly sponsored by the San Francisco Philippine Consulate, Shahani said: “It is high time we all recognized a grim and pressing reality: the UN now ranks the Philippines as number one in terms of casualties suffered because of natural calamities. This means that environmental disasters in an era of climate change have now become our most urgent national security issue.” Before assuming her current post as Assistant Secretary of the Human Development and Poverty Reduction Cabinet (HDPRC) Cluster in April of 2012, Shahani had served as Assistant Secretary of the Philippine National Anti-Poverty Commission and as an adjunct faculty at the Asian Institute of Management . She is currently a PhD candidate at Oxford University in England (2014). She previously obtained her Master’s degree in International Relations at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in collaboration with Harvard University in Massachusetts in 2004 and her Bachelor’s degree in Comparative Literature and Art History at Brown University in Rhode Island in 1989. Before deciding to return to the Philippines to work in the government, Shahani was an editor at Penguin Books and at Oxford University Press. She also worked at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the International Labor Organization (ILO), and at the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF). HOW PREPARED WERE WE? In a recent posting on her Facebook page, Shahani observed: “Given the scale of the devastation, it is natural that we ask some hard questions: “Among the national government agencies, how far in advance were the preparations made, and how smooth was the inter-agency coordination? More importantly, given the Local Government Code (which stipulates that matters like disaster-preparedness are now the primary responsibility of each Local Government Unit or LGU), how prepared, in fact, was each affected LGU?” Even though she is a member of the Philippine government, Shahani is not deterred from expressing her own reflections about the disaster: “Frankly, from where I sit (and I could be wrong), all I can say is that DSWD and the other national agencies went on red alert days ago, and have been on the ground ever since… So how then do we explain places like Tacloban and Ormoc? And how is it that the majority of Cong. Romualdez’ funds for disaster assistance have already been depleted? How is it that Mayor Alfred Romualdez himself - despite at least three days lead time - had to be rescued? To Cong. Lucy Torres, if you knew well in advance that this was going to happen in Ormoc, why were you not even in your own hometown? You knew the rain would be strong but not the wind?” After further reflection, Shahani wrote: “In the end, this is not about a blame game. This is about taking stock and a collective sense of responsibility for what happens to us as a nation. That we may finally break this endless cycle of constant tragedy.” Also speaking at the Forum, which will deal with the consequences of the Philippines situated in the Pacific Ring of Fire, will be Prof. Vicente Rafael of the University of Washington History Department.
Posted on: Wed, 13 Nov 2013 17:13:06 +0000
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