The scandalous state of Filipino disaster relief
The
first major typhoon is bearing down on the Philippines with winds expected at
up 185 km per hour and anticipated to rip directly through Central Luzon,
hitting Metro Manila, Laguna and other metropolitan areas, more than 100,000
families are reportedly being evacuated from low lying and coastal areas.
Manila and other areas expect heavy flooding.
But
despite the fact that the country is pounded regularly by up to 30 tropical
storms a year, preparation remains woefully inadequate, and recovery is even
more inadequate. In 2013, a total of 31 tropical storms blasted the
Philippines, 13 of them turning into typhoons and five of those metamorphosing
into super typhoons, killing 6,825 people and doing a total of US$22.8 billion
in damage.
Cleanup
is still tardy from Super Typhoon Haiyan, known in the Philippines as Yolanda,
a Category 5 storm with winds gusting up to 300 km/hr which devastated the
islands of Samar and Leyte last November, killing more than 6,200 people.
Because rebuilding has been so slow, thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of
people have simply packed up and left for Manila, straining that city’s already
strained resources.
But the
benighted residents of Tacloban and other Leyte cities are hardly alone. In
2013, a full year after Typhoon Bopha, known as Pablo in the Philippines, had
killed more than 1,200 people on the southern island of Mindanao, damaged or
destroyed 230,000 houses and literally wiped an entire village off the map,
only 600 homes had been completed in the provinces of Agusan del Sur, the
Compostela Valley and Davao. Another 300 were under construction and 200 more
had been planned.
As Asia
Sentinel reported on June 12, seven months on from Haiyan, access to learning
remains a challenge for far too many children.The typhoon damaged 2,500 schools
and affected an estimated 1.4 million schoolchildren. More than 500 day care
centers were completely damaged and more than 2,000 suffered partial damage.
But
“classroom repairs are still a major problem,” Manan Kotak, an education
specialist for UNICEF told the UN news agency IRIN. As of May, more than 4,200
learning spaces were still in tents or temporary structures.
Today,
progress made during recovery stages could be undermined without job creation
strategies to secure stability beyond short-term livelihood projects, according
to aid agencies and government officials.
“We
have moved on from life-saving food assistance - critical at the onset of any
emergency. We need to focus on livelihood creation that will ensure food
security in the long term,” said Dipayan Bhattacharyya, in charge of food
security for the UN World Food Program in the Philippines.
Eight
months after the storm tore through Tacloban and across into Cebu, “people are
clamoring for two things: jobs and shelter,” said Fe Kagahistian, cash
coordinator for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in
Manila. “Typhoon survivors now need jobs that will go beyond short-term cash
for work programs. They need jobs that will allow them to provide for their
basic needs with a little extra to save for the future,” she said.
After
Haiyan/Yolanda, the economic and social sector bore 93 percent of the
infrastructure damage and suffered approximately US$3.3 billion in production
and income losses.
“Building
back the trade and industry sector is not that simple,” Alfred Romualdez, mayor
of Tacloban City, the urban area hardest hit by Haiyan, told IRIN despite the
fact that Tacloban is a trade and economic artery of the central Philippines,
serving as a gateway for the archipelago and linking Manila to major cities
like Cebu and Davao.
Of 7.4
million people employed in various service, agricultural and manufacturing
industries in the region affected by the typhoon, many still haven’t returned
to work.
“Manufacturing
companies are only getting their insurance claims now. At the same time, we
need to rebuild energy and water systems to keep these companies operational,”
said Romualdez. Pepsi-Cola and Coca-Cola bottling facilities in Tacloban have
been shuttered since the typhoon.
“These
companies each employ about 2,000 people. They are major job providers,” said
Romualdez, adding that factory operations are scheduled to start in the third
or fourth quarter of this year.
Other
organizations are looking at out-of-the box ways to provide employment for
typhoon survivors.
The
Office of the Presidential Assistant for Rehabilitation and Recovery (OPARR), a
special unit created to oversee disaster recovery in the 171 municipalities and
four major regions known as “Yolanda Avenue”, has partnered with private
companies in an “Enrolment To Employment” program, which provides skills
training and then matches graduates with relevant prospective employers.
Alongside
rebuilding existing businesses, plans are under way to attract renewed
investments into the region, creating jobs and bolstering resilience among
residents.
“We are
exploring [how to make] use of special economic zones in certain parts of
Tacloban together with the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA),” said
Butch Meily, president of the Philippines Disaster Recovery Foundation, a group
of private sector corporations that work with the government and international
aid organizations on disaster recovery. Businesses operating in special
economic zones will enjoy fiscal incentives such as tax breaks and income tax
holidays during the first few years of business.
Small
to medium enterprises comprise about 99 percent of all businesses in the
country, employing an estimated 69 percent of the labor force. The government
categorizes businesses based on assets and employee numbers - for example, a
small enterprise has between 10 and 99 employees, and a medium one between 100
and 199.
“We
hope that this will serve as a trigger to revive the economic industries that
will create sustainable employment in the region,” said Meily.
With reporting by IRIN, a service of the
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Business & Investment Opportunities
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