Manila Standard Today - December 12, 2014 A national disaster By Horace Templo Life in our country is never complete without a super typhoon hitting it once a year and causing a disaster of national magnitude. In fact, they hit us several times a year and even outnumber the letters of our alphabet in some years. Each time, they kill lives and destroy properties that are more pronounced in remote areas that are hardly reached by transportation and communication. Sometimes, we don’t even get to know these large villages. Our impoverished countrymen’s losses could be their only lifetime treasures, which they always hope they would recover. In reality, they are never replaced nor even repaired. No one is spared by these disasters. They exact a heavy financial toll on the poor and the middle class, and drive them further into poverty. Consequently, our typhoon-prone provinces are the nation’s poorest, and efforts to reduce their poverty incidence are hindered by these natural disasters. The wealthy also get their share of damages, but sometimes they rebuild their businesses and replace their properties by charging exorbitant profits on goods and services that they sell to the victims. In general, we become united in times of national disaster, and set aside our conflicting business interests, partisan differences, and hidden political agendas and ambitions. We help out in relief operations. We donate our money, canned goods, packed foods, used clothes, and even old toys. We offer our services for free and volunteer to help repack donated sardines, corned beef and noodles. Some of us even leave work to help distribute relief goods in far-flung areas. With long years of suffering from natural disasters, our government has addressed national disasters in a structured manner even before we learned to blame climate change for causing these calamities. On June 11, 1978, President Ferdinand Marcos signed Presidential Decree No. 1566 entitled “Strengthening the Philippine Disaster Control, Capability and Establishing the National Program on Community Disaster Preparedness.” The decree recognized that “the Filipino has always endured the hardship of a hostile environment” and “has continually sought survival against typhoons, floods, earthquakes, epidemics, fires and other major calamities.” As to what we must do, it was clear. “There is an urgent need to direct, control, and coordinate the entire manpower material, monetary and spiritual resources of the entire Filipino nation in meeting major disasters that come our way.” “There is a cogent requirement for pre-disaster planning, community disaster preparedness and positive, precise disaster control action for rescue evacuation, relief and rehabilitation to insure the survival of every Filipino in the New Society.” It created the National Disaster Coordinating Council to “advise the President on the status of preparedness programs disaster operations and rehabilitation efforts undertaken by the government and private sectors.” If only the decree were effectively implemented damages would have been much reduced during natural disasters. The decree was repealed later on May 27, 2010 with the passage of a new law that replaced the NDCC with the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council. But this was done not because partisan politicians detested anything that came out—good or bad—from the New Society. It was for another reason. Typhoon Ondoy came down with its devastating floods on September 26, 2009 and unmasked our unpreparedness to meet disasters of its magnitude, leaving left 671 dead and P11.15 billion worth of damaged properties. Curiously, the new law of 34 pages and 30 sections was signed into law by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo a month and three days before her term of office ended. The Senate and House of Representatives under the leadership of Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and House Speaker Prospero Nograles passed it on February 1, 2010. But even with NDRRMC actively working, disasters continued to inflict devastating damages. Typhoons Sendong, Peping, and Juan, the Bohol earthquake, and the Zamboanga City siege have come and brought sufferings to our people despite the efforts of NDRRMC and public and private sectors. We recall that the day before Typhoon Yolanda and its storm surge hit Tacloban City on November 8, 2013, NDRRMC Chairman Voltaire Gazmin and Vice-Chairman Mar Roxas inspected the city, briefed its local officials, and checked its preparations. The rest is now part of our saddest history of natural disasters. Yolanda, according to NDRRMC, left 5,632 dead, 1,140 people missing, 12,166 injured, and P36.6 billion worth of properties damaged. Many believe that casualties were 10,000 or more and that damages reached P100 billion. The latest typhoon—Ruby—was initially announced as much stronger than Yolanda until PNoy clarified that it was “only” as strong as Pablo. Still, millions were evacuated preemptively to safer grounds and the daily routines of everybody were disrupted. When it left, it was not as destructive as the other super typhoons but damages to life and properties were still substantial. But who cares? To its victims, it has been as devastating as any of the typhoons. It would have been more disastrous had our public officials drawn huge public funds and distributed only a fraction of it to those affected, and had our businessmen gained unconscionable profits at their expense.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Dec 2014 03:39:40 +0000
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