While Filipinos have repeatedly been touted for having a water-proof spirit when struck with any man-made and natural calamities, the obvious gap in the country’s disaster preparedness is still not bridged. There will come a time when this much-abused spirit of ‘resiliency’ can no longer save those vulnerable people who bear the most devastating impact of disasters.
Resilience may be an essential trait in overcoming adapting to whatever tests life brings, but this is also often misused to excuse accountability and liability from people supposedly tasked with preventing distressing outcomes from happening.
In the middle of a pandemic crisis, three consecutive typhoons made landfall in the country - Quinta, Rolly, and Ulysses. Each came barrelling across Metro Manila, other Luzon Provinces, and some Urban areas, leaving behind destroyed houses, fallen trees, broken electricity lines, flooded roads, floating bodies, and disheartened Filipino people.
Considering that our tectonic location is within the Pacific Ring of Fire, It is a given that the Philippines is a country most prone to natural hazards, having an average of 20 tropical cyclones passing every year, according to the Asian Disaster Reduction Center (ADRC).
Knowing these regular threats to our people and land, why do Filipinos always seem to share the same narrative about resilience every after disasters?
During the height of Ulysses’ fury, Marikina City was one of the worst-affected areas, such that the Marikina River’s water level reached 22 meters on Thursday, November 12 - a number higher than typhoon Ondoy’s 21. 5-meter level.
According to Office of the Civil Defense (OCD) Assistant Secretary Casiano Monilla, the government “were actually not caught flatfooted in this event,” but the “residents do not comply” immediately to what is warned of them.
Per contra, it was already the fourth typhoon in November, meaning the residents were already flooded with past warnings, making these new set of cautions sound less alarming. They should have delivered a more detailed advisory to make sure the people understand the message they are trying to portray.
Even UP Resilience Institute head Mahar Lagmay said there should have been “area-specific, hazard-focused, and time-bound warnings” in the disaster-prone areas.
Back when Project NOAH by Lagmay was funded by the government, it uses disaster maps to foresee and identify areas at risk of floods, at what speed and height do the water rise in the rivers, and where landslides might occur. This helped in bridging gaps of information and communication during that time, but it was defunded due to budget deterrents in 2017.
Apart from this, one of the main reasons for the flooding in Cagayan, Isabela, Bulacan, and Pampanga is the release of water dams during the height of Ulysses.
According to Lagmay, this damage could have been avoided using weather maps to predict rainfall before a typhoon occurs for the dam to release water in advance.
Why does the government continue to overlook the significance of disaster prevention and mitigation?
It has been 10 years ever since the implementing rules and regulations were released for Republic Act (RA) 10121, also known as the Philippine DRRM Act of 2010, and yet the government continues to set aside this kind of problems on the back burner until they become so big it requires much more wrenching change to try to deal with them.
In this era of global warming, people may never absolutely prevent the damages brought by certain extreme weather disturbances. No one can stop a typhoon or storm surge, but it’s possible to save communities from the brunt of nature’s fury. Lives, property, and livelihoods have better chances of surviving with a competent government.
Filipino resilience has always been here. When will the government care for the people at risk? When will they give the service every Filipino people deserve?
Words by Lindy Lyne Aviles and Jeyan Dequillo Illustration by John Empeds Casul
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