PHNO-HL: FORMER PRESIDENT GMA'S RESPONSE TO 'ONDOY' DISASTER / SQUANDERED

FORMER PRESIDENT GMA'S RESPONSE TO 'ONDOY'
DISASTER / SQUANDERED
MANILA, AUGUST 21, 2012 (TRIBUNE) Written by Charlie V. Manalo - A
couple of weeks back, the country had again been hit by massive flooding, one of
the worst in recent history, no thanks to President Aquino for cancelling the
flood control projects initiated by his predecessor, resulting in countless
lives being lost, with billions of pesos in damaged properties and thousands of
families being displaced.

How ironic for failing to come up with an
honest-to-goodness disaster preparedness program to substitute for the programs
he had cancelled as Aquino obviously failed to take into consideration that the
Philippines is one of the world's most calamity-prone
countries.

According to the United Nations, nearly half of the country
can be classified as "disaster-prone areas," placing us third behind tiny Tonga
and Vanuatu in the Pacific. From floods alone, the country suffered $1.23
billion of destruction and the loss of over 3,000 lives over the period
1990-2007.

Global warming and climate change have only worsened the
situation. Typhoons can hit with unexpected severity in the most unexpected
places.
In 2009, the damage from Ondoy and Pepeng exceeded $4 billion — more than
triple the previous two decades — with nearly a thousand lives lost. Also in
2009, Northern Mindanao was hit by Auring, and again in 2011 by the much more
severe Sendong, which took over 1,500 lives.
As the country enters the middle of this year's typhoon season, with more
expected to come (up to 20 a year), it is timely to review the history behind
the nation's flood preparedness. It is important to understand why a palpable
sense of dread, never seen in previous years, seems now to settle over the
people every time the storm clouds gather overhead.
GMA's Response

In response to the disaster wrought by Ondoy and
Pepeng in 2009, former President Gloria Arroyo came up with the following
multi-layer response:

1. Enactment of Disater Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010 (RA 10121)
and issuance of Executive Order (EO) 888 on a Strategic National Action Plan
(SNAP) for calamity response and reduction. These two documents, drafted with
extensive inputs from various disaster experts, provide the legal policy
framework for disaster risk reduction (DRR) all the way down to the community
level.

2. Establishment of a Special National Public Reconstruction
Commission (SNPRC), chaired by the Department of Finance, and its private sector
counterpart, the Philippine Disaster Recovery Foundation (PDRF), originally
chaired by business leader Manny Pangilinan and Ricardo Cardinal Vidal of Cebu.
These two bodies were created to raise funds and draft plans for post-typhoon
reconstruction in Panay and Luzon, as well as to undertake studies on preventing
future mega-disasters.

3. Endorsement by both bodies to the incoming
President Aquino of about P10 billion in projects for funding earmarked by
Congress in the 2010 budget. This was in addition to over P8 billion in recovery
work that was funded by realigned agency budgets. These projects formed part of
a Reconstruction Master Plan for the Ondoy and Pepeng areas from
2010-2012.

4. Submission by both bodies of two draft Executive Orders.
One would integrate and better maintain the disparate flood warning and control
operations of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services
Administration (Pagasa ), Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), and
the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), as well as dam operators the
National Irrigation Administration (NIA) and the National Power Corporation
(Napocor), to improve early warning of communities in the path of
floodwaters.

5. The other EO would create a multi-stakeholder commission
to draft a long-term integrated plan (the so-called "delta plan") for
infrastructure, land use, water resources and watershed management in the Pasig
River delta and Laguna de Bay, using state of the art modeling and expert advice
from international consultants, including experts from the Netherlands with its
world-famous sea dikes.

The SNAP plan per EO 888, as drafted by the
Office of Civil Defense, prioritized five actions:

1. Governance –
Disaster risk reduction should be supported by major legislation and government
programs like the Medium Term Phil Development Plan (MTPDP)

2. Risk
identification, assessment, monitoring, and early warning systems – To get
people quickly out of harm's way

3. Knowledge management and education –
To instill risk reduction information and practices, not just in government
agencies, but also in the minds and behavior of ordinary citizens

4. Risk
management and vulnerability reduction – Such as flood control projects and the
proper planning of residential and commercial construction projects

5.
Disaster preparedness for effective response and recovery – Well trained and
equipped rescue teams; financial arrangements like calamity insurance in order
to quickly mobilize resources for medical, livelihood, and rebuilding
needs.

Bottom line: There was a real legacy bequeathed to when he assumed
office in July 2010, including the necessary funds, nearly P10 billion in
concessional Japanese loans and a pending $250 million credit from the World
Bank (WB).
He was handed a complete disaster manual just waiting to be
implemented.
(Tomorrow: How Aquino squandered that
legacy)
How Aquino squandered that legacy Written by
Tribune Wednesday, 22 August 2012

1) Cancellation of flood control projects

In July 2010, Public
Works Secretary Singson cancelled 19 projects totaling P934 million which
involved repair of numerous seawalls, flood control systems, bridges, bank
protections, and dikes. These projects were rebid only a year later, in April
2011, for completion scheduled by September 2012.

Unfortunately, that did
not help the victims of Pedring and Quiel in late 2011, with nearly a hundred
lives lost and P14 billion in property damage. Neither was the new deadline
helpful to the victims of the recent low pressure areas (not even full-fledged
typhoons) that dumped torrential rains on the country this
month.

Whatever fractional savings on that P934 million of projects that
Singson was after, obviously wasn't worth the lives lost and billions of
property damage that were suffered. Tuwid na daan cost us and became Lunod na
bayan.

2) Neglecting the recommendations of disaster preparedness

Here are some specific recommendations from the SNPRC and PDRF that were
simply ignored by the administration:
Inter-agency sharing of weather and
water data and implementation of joint disaster responses. This was one of the
recommendations turned over to the new administration in July 2010, but has
languished since then.

Creating a single authority to coordinate disaster
response, including dam water releases. This was also recommended in 2010, and
is only now being resurrected.

Buying more rescue helicopters for the
Coast Guard. This was not included in last year's budget, nor was money even
realigned by Department of Transportation and Communication (DoTC) to acquire at
least one or two choppers.

Despite Presidential adviser Neric Acosta's
repeated pleas to blame climate change (and not the President), Aquino has not
convened even once the Climate Change Commission. And it was only after
"Basyang" hit earlier this year that the President for the very first time
convened his own National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council
(NDRRMC).
In general, none of the major recommendations of the disaster
reconstruction commission or its private sector counterpart have been
implemented at all by this administration during its two years in
office.

3) Neglect and alienation of concerned
agencies

After Basyang hit in 2010, the President fired chief
weatherman Prisco Nilo. In the advent of Juan soon after, he praised the relief
agencies. Then, after Pedring and Quiel a year later, he complained that
"disaster response needs improvement". This, despite the availability of ample
fiscal resources as well as the roadmap for reforms left to him by his
predecessor.

Lately, the President was on the warpath again, this time
issuing direct threats against Pagasa employees who were simply asking for
overdue benefits. The retirement benefits of another chief weatherman who had
incurred his ire were also withheld for no reason.

How can we expect
effective management of these agencies—let alone implementation of a long-term
roadmap—when the President's daily style of leadership seems to depend on which
side of the bed he gets up in the morning?

4) Blaming the
victims
This is the most unattractive facet of the administration's
failure to deal with the perennial flood problem. First we heard Neric Acosta
blaming climate change, not the administration's failure to anticipate and
prepare for the disastrous effects of such change. After Pedring hit in
September last year, the President blamed typhoon victims for failing to
evacuate despite government alerts.

Months later, in the wake of Quiel,
the executive director of NDRRMC, Benito Ramos, again blamed the victims for
ignoring storm warnings. This same executive later blamed the lack of Doppler
radars for the failure to anticipate the rains brought by Sendong, even though
warnings were available a week earlier from US storm monitors and even a
blogger, typhoonk.com.

This year, a Palace spokesman said the government
was no longer obliged to issue such warnings; after all, people could always
check Facebook or Twitter (as if everyone has access to the internet). Not to be
outdone, even the DepEd sought to wash its hands of any responsibility to close
down schools because of typhoons, passing the buck instead to local government
executives.

What lies ahead

Judging from what has happened
in the wake of this year's storms, maybe we can only expect more of the same
from this administration:

Finger-pointing – The President scored
his predecessor and crowed that his disaster relief responses were better than
hers. Then he told outright lies about the Laguna Lake dredging project that he
unilaterally .

Threats – After canceling those much needed flood
control projects two years ago, Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson is now
threatening to "blow up" structures that obstruct flood waters. Does he intend
to include squatter shanties among his explosive targets?

Grandiose
promises – The President unveiled a grandiose press release about a P352
billion flood control program. This, from someone who can boast of only one
awarded project to date from his even more grandiosely heralded PPP
program.

But this need not be the case. If only they put their minds to
it, there is no reason an effective flood control strategy cannot be put in
place by the different branches of government:

Congress should
appropriate sufficient funds for disaster risk reduction (DRR). If we assume
P100,000 per household to relocate a total of about 125,000 families living
along creeks, rivers and lakes, that works out to P12.5 billion. That is less
than one-third of this year's budget for the supposedly pro-poor conditional
cash transfers program (CCT).

The President can use the "delta plan"
crafted by the SNPRC and the PDRF in the wake of Ondoy—as the basis for planning
and implementing his P352 Billion flood control program. There is no need to
reinvent the wheel if only he can get over his hostility to his
predecessor.

The NOAH flood warning system, also proposed by the two
post-Ondoy bodies, is a good step in the right direction (assuming of course it
has enough fuel to keep it running). Also waiting to be implemented are the
global warming adaptation measures urged by the Climate Change Commission, as
soon as he gets around to convening this body.

Lastly, DILG has a role to
play in prodding local governments to join the national government in investing
in DRR infrastructure and logistics, including flood control, rescue and medical
gear, and most importantly, resettlement of affected communities


Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
All
rights reserved




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