AMIDST untold casualties and displacement of 149,000 people from the ravages of recent typhoons “Karen” and “Haima” and threats to stronger weather disturbances, Filipino communities and leaders are called to step up strategies for disaster risk resilience.
Hans Sy, president of SM Prime Holdings Inc., made the call in his address before the Top Leaders Forum, a gathering of the country’s captains of industry to tackle the best practices to make businesses disaster resilient at the SMX Mall of Asia in Pasay City recently.
“There is still much to be done in terms of pre-disaster efforts. In the country’s rural parts, there is great need to build better housing projects, resilient infrastructures most especially securing livelihood,” he said.
Sy, the only Filipino member of the private sector group Alliance for Disaster Resilient Societies (ARISE) has been spearheading for the past four years the TLF in cooperation with the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction.
The initiative is aimed to “raise awareness on disaster risk and mobilization among the private sector, to bring out different expertise, share knowledge and experiences, and to implement tangible projects and activities.”
Other delegates who shared their expertise, experiences and commitments during the forum were Undersecretary Ricardo Jalad of the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (DRRMC); Dr. Fabian Dayrit from the National Academy of Science and Technology; Ateneo de Manila University president Fr. Jose Ramon Villarin, S.J.; Dr. Rajib Shaw from the Integrated Research on Disaster Risk International; Dr. Satoru Nishikawa, research executive director for Japan Center for Area Development Research; Dr. Rodel Lasco, coordinating lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Thomas Orbos of MMDA, and UNISDR Asia-Pacific Focal Point Representative Andrew McElroy.
Just recently, the SM arm for corporate social responsibility, SM Cares completed the turnover of 1,000 disaster-resilient housing units in areas hardest hit by Super Typhoon “Haiyan” (Yolanda) in the Visayas region. 200 additional units for another village are set for completion by 2017, Sy announced.
“With the help of fellow private sector members, we have built back better homes for the victims of Typhoon Yolanda,” he added.
In his presentation, Dr. Nishikawa highlighted societal dedication, civic duty and commitment to disaster risk reduction as key traits of Japanese engineers who built infrastructure projects that control flooding. He said such projects withstood time and remains in operation for minimizing floods in modern Japan.
These leaders, he cited, were dedicated to disaster reduction as their efforts earned the trust and fellowship of the populace; at the same time, disaster reduction efforts translated to livelihood stability with greater rice production and lesser droughts and floods in vulnerable communities. In turn, such dedication allowed for these leaders to expand their areas of influence.
In mitigating dangers from disasters, these leaders who employed scientific principles and technology effectively reached out and ensured benefits to people at risk. Such applications of science and technology to lessen risks are now embodied in the nation’s strict safety standards and building code, he noted.
For Sy, these efforts, “simply recognize the responsibility that is put upon us as integrated property developer, nation builder and an influence within the private sector.”
Of late, increased warming of Pacific Ocean waters has spawned super typhoons—and the country stands battered yearly by more than 20 of these. Yet, natural and manmade challenges that we face as a nation has not changed and may even be greater than the past years.
While more of us are now aware and are adapting to different strategies and responses to natural disasters, Sy cited the need to learn from each other. He also said threats of stronger typhoons call for better preparations,” Sy said.
In prepping for the threats of natural calamities, regional and local perspectives on science and technology for disaster risk reduction can be threshed out—“to maximize science towards sustainable development. In addition, disaster risk finance and insurance provide the framework in which to address pressing concerns. We must bridge the gap between disaster risk reduction and science and technology,” he stressed.