Appoint a disaster czar

MANY sections of the citizenry and media, including this paper, have expressed dissatisfaction with the way the government has handled the latest, and most devastating, physical disaster Metro Manila and its environs have suffered in 40 or more years.

In one breath we have criticized the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC), and the various disaster coordinating councils (DCCs) down the line, for not having acted to prepare the nation effectively for the murderous floods that came with Typhoon Ondoy. We also scolded them for not responding quickly enough to the desperate situation of the victims.

But we also praised Secretary of National Defense Gilberto Teodoro for having done a creditable job—considering the limitations of his mandate and the meager resources available. We see that the foremost limitation of all is the top disaster coordinator’s lack of police power.

We explained in an editorial that as defined by the laws—actually a Marcos martial law regime presidential decree, from which various Malacañang Palace issuances and some weak laws have sprung—the NDCC chair’s first response is merely to recommend to the President the need to declare a state of emergency.

When the declaration has been made, then the smallest government units—the barangays, towns, and cities are the ones that are expected to do the work of coordinating disaster mitigation, rescue and relief efforts. This in the superb philosophical principle of subsidiarity.

If something is to be severely criticized about the management of the Ondoy disaster—forgetting the lateness of the DCCs’ response and the delays in the rescue and relief efforts—one has to mention first of all the lack of coordination.

By and large, coordination has been good enough, more or less, between the government agencies.

Lack of coordination, leading to areas of ineffectiveness in delivering relief and doing rescue efforts where these were desperately needed, is, however, deplorable between government and private sector.

The Country Director for the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Renaud Meyer, who attended a roundtable at The Manila Times together with UNDP-Philippines communications officer, Danton Remoto, buttressed this observation.

In many places, private sector and civil society organizations (CSOs)—which should be part of the overall team of rescuers and relief givers as defined by the documents describing the total and nationwide disaster coordination plan—were doing rescue and relief work by themselves.

Why?

In some places, the barangay- and town-level disaster coordinating councils were not in operation. In others, these were ready to work in relief distribution and had actually identified where the needy families were but the CSOs—like those of the ABS-CBN and Lopez Foundation—saw that shady characters would have taken over the relief goods.

‘Trapos’ and feudal lords

Some other donors found it repulsive to allow a ruling “trapo” politico whose principles and unethical track record they could not stomach assume command of the relief distribution. He would make it appear as if he was responsible for bringing the goodies to the disaster victims. Rather than allow a hated politico benefit from their work of charity, these CSOs decided to do the distribution work themselves—minus the assistance of the barangay DCC personnel because these would not like to cross their feudal lord politico boss.

In other places, the barangay and town-level DCCs were simply not competent enough.

Mr. Meyer said about these circumstances and people that the Filipinos should have to do away with them—in the elections.

For all the weaknesses of some local government units in doing their work as the “first line of defense” during disasters and calamities, however, UNDP’s Meyer wishes to discourage government and private sectors from going on separate, parallel paths.

“You must of course demand reforms on the government side if there are problems with them. But the difficulties must not turn you off from the goodness of the model,” he said.

Not unique here

Coordination problems is not unique to the Filipinos. Every country when it began taking its disaster management and mitigation work seriously found it hard to achieve perfect coordination among the government units and between government and the private sector, he said.

But that model—of harmonious cooperation between government and private sector—is the only good one, the only one that works best, Meyer added.

The UNDP, which is involved in aiding the Philippines in practically every aspect of development and in meeting the country’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), is very much involved not only now that the Ondoy disaster is growing into a grave humanitarian crisis.

It has been helping the Philippine national government as well as every level of local government to become better performers in disaster preparedness and mitigation.

It points to Albay’s Gov. Joey Salceda as one of the country’s models to be emulated in actually building up preparedness among every level in Albay society and government personnel.

Albay’s seasonal and recurring disaster is storms. Governor Salceda has created a province that is prepared to meet contingencies before they happen. Meyer told The Times that a measure of Salceda’s and his fellow Albay officials’ success is the annual decline in casualties, deaths and property damage.

Meyer said the government, private sector and people of Albay not only manage the disaster when it comes and do a good job of doing rescue and relief, they also have carefully mapped Albay’s vulnerable areas. And they do actual preparedness seminars and drills throughout the year.

Lack of preparedness

Preparedness for disasters is lacking in the lives of most Filipinos. It is also one of the things that are stated in the mandate of the National Disaster Coordinating Council and the regional, provincial, municipal, city and barangay DCCs.

Not only Salceda has succeeded in making his constituency and the officials under him do preparedness work. Most of the Institute of Solidarity in Asia’s more than 20 champion cities in good governance tackle this aspect of keeping alive.

The UNDP, the World Bank, the ADB and other international institutions have been helping the Philippines map areas with the greatest threats of disaster—from typhoons, heavy rains and landslides, floods, earthquakes, fires and tsunami.

Unfortunately, perhaps because most government officials are too concerned with political survival, escaping retribution for their malfeasance or operating corrupt scams, disaster preparedness seminars and drills are the farthest from their minds.

Pass the new law

But there are several senators and congressmen whose level-headedness and civic sense see the need to improve our laws on disaster preparedness, mitigation and coordination.

Bills have been filed in both houses to create a separate department to do the job effectively.

NDCC Chairman Teodoro is in favor of the consolidated bill titled “Philippine Disaster Risk Management Act of 2008.” –Rene Q. Bas Editor In Chief, Manila Times