For decades, the Philippines has seen the onslaught of countless devastating typhoons, felt the brunt of destructive earthquakes, and the threat of drought, every now and then.
If the country had a logbook of all the natural calamities it endured, the entries would be long and with numerous footnotes.
Since 1990, the Philippines has been affected by more than 500 natural disasters, which have claimed the lives of nearly 70,000 Filipinos and caused an estimated $23 billion in damages, according to the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR).
This makes the Philippines one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world.
A report from GFDRR also states that apart from frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, an average of 20 typhoons make landfall every year in the Philippines.
This is no surprise as the country is located along the “Pacific Ring of Fire.”
In fact, at least 60% of the total land area of the Philippines is exposed to multiple hazards and 74% of the population is vulnerable to their impact.
Along these lines, threats from natural disasters in the Philippines have been increasing, and over the last decade, typhoons making landfall have become stronger and more devastating.
The Philippines was recently struck by category 5 storms, with winds exceeding 250 km per hour in 2012 and 2013, most notably back in 2013 when Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan), the strongest storm ever recorded at landfall, caused over 6,000 reported fatalities and damaged 1.1 million homes in nine regions.
The report further explained that the extensive damage caused by the natural disaster resulted in 2.3 million Filipinos falling below the poverty line, particularly in highly affected areas.
But it isn’t all-natural; as climate change, brought about by the effects of human activity, is also exacerbating the impact of weather-related events in the Philippines, GFDRR said.
It likewise notes that unregulated urban expansion has also aggravated flooding risks and is expected to worsen in the future.
The Philippines is also witnessing longer episodes of drought and El Niño, disrupting the volume of agricultural production and affecting GDP.
More recently, a series of earthquakes hit different parts of the country with damaging effects. The Luzon, as well as the Cotabato and Southern Mindanao quakes, certainly had people on their toes.
Taal Volcano, long considered as one of the country’s most active volcano, continues to threaten to wreak havoc 14 kilometers within its vicinity, leaving over 100,000 families still affected by its initial spewing of ash, steam, and deadly sulfuric substances.
Nearly 400,000 people are still affected by Taal’s recent activity.
But if the country has been, and still will, experience spates of natural disasters, why is there a lingering notion that the country is underprepared for such calamities, if not, still surprised by the effects of these phenomena with recovery proving slow for affected communities?
Fortunately, lawmakers are pushing for the creation of a branch of government that will solely, and intently, come up with actions and long-term plans to make the Philippines disaster resilient.
Enter the proposed Department of Disaster Resilience, which in fact, has been a buzzword in the legislative sector for quite some time now.
Thankfully, the House of Representatives is stepping up to the plate and taking action in the materialization of this would-be department.
In truth, House Majority Leader and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez said Congress would expedite the passage of President Rodrigo Duterte’s priority measures, including bills creating executive departments for Filipino overseas workers, water resources, and most especially, disaster resilience before the next adjournment in March.
“We aim to hit the ground running when session resumes. Time to roll up our sleeves once again and work double time on vital legislative measures,” Romualdez said.
“The speaker made clear instructions to pass these bills. No less than President Rodrigo Duterte himself called on Congress to work on these measures during his fourth State of the Nation Address last July,” he added.
Congress would vote on third and final reading other vital measures, he cited.
“This includes House Bill No. 5673 authorizing the Department of Health to set and approve the bed capacity and service capability of all DoH-retained hospitals in all parts of the country,” Romualdez explained.
This means that slowly, disaster resilience, more than preparedness, is now becoming more of a priority. This is a big deal considering that efforts in the past have been poured on disaster response only.
With the DDR, there will be a comprehensive, focused and full-time government agency tasked to lead the Philippines’ disaster preparedness, response and recovery efforts.
Establishing this agency provides proper education, training, risk reduction mitigation, relief, and rehabilitation with the tools and technical know-how to better address the country’s perennial problems with natural disasters.
This comes at no surprise, as with the advent of digitalization and the fast innovations in convergent Information and Communications Technologies, there have been solutions that will address end-to-end needs for the effective, efficient and transparent implementation of disaster resiliency programs for the whole of the Philippines.
We can learn from our friendly neighbor in the Asia-Pacific region in Japan when it comes to integrating technologies in disaster resiliency. Japan, sitting at the Pacific Ring of Fire just like the Philippines, boasts of well-developed ICT systems in addressing disasters.
The three integrated systems in place are the Earthquake Early Warning System, J-Alert, and the Emergency Alert Mail.
These systems are responsible for processing an earthquake’s hypocenter, magnitude and intensity transmits warnings instantaneously nationwide, and immediately trigger a cell broadcast for all affected persons about the critical infrastructure that could be damaged.
We need the DDR sooner than later. Countless lives depend on it.