Benguet 2nd ‘most vulnerable’ province

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet, Philippines—The province has more reasons now to beef up its disaster preparedness and climate change adaptation measures following an assessment that found it as the country’s second most vulnerable area to climate hazards, next to Metro Manila.

According to the recently released study, “Hotspots! Mapping Climate Change Vulnerability in Southeast Asia,” Benguet’s vulnerability was based on its record of being frequently hit by typhoons and floods.

Dr. Herminia Francisco, director of the Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia (EEPSEA), bared the study’s findings to reporters who attended a climate change workshop in Manila last week.

The variables used to evaluate the vulnerability of the country’s 74 provinces were their past experiences with typhoons, droughts, floods and landslides, she said.

Francisco, who co-authored the study with Arief Anshory Yusuf, a researcher of the Department of Economics of the Padjadjaran University in Bandung, Indonesia, said their findings were based on the records of the United Nations Economic Program (UNEP) for the last 25 years (1980 to 2005).

Governor Nestor Fongwan said he was surprised of the study’s findings.

“But we will surely make use of [these] findings to enhance our climate-change adaptation programs,” he said.

The provincial government has started a project to strengthen the ability of Benguet’s 13 towns to mitigate the impact of natural calamities, he said.

The ranking of the province did not include the damage to lives and property experienced during the onslaught of Typhoon “Pepeng” last year when more than 100 people were killed by landslides in the province, Francisco said.

Shortly after Pepeng struck, Benguet, Ifugao and Mt. Province became the beneficiaries of a project from the UN Development Program and European Union that aimed to train local officials on how to mainstream disaster-risk reduction and climate-change adaptation measures into local development plans.

Fongwan said the project would enhance the ability of local governments to include disaster risk assessment and prevention in their planning. In the study, mapping assessments were carried out for each of the 74 provinces.

The study also identified Batanes, Ilocos Sur, Rizal, Bataan, Batangas, Bulacan, Abra and Albay as provinces vulnerable to climate hazards. The provinces in Northern Luzon were among the most vulnerable because these experienced frequent typhoons, droughts and landslides, it said.

Metro Manila and nearby provinces like Bulacan, Bataan, Rizal and Batangas were less exposed to landslides but were included among the most vulnerable provinces due to records of frequent flooding on top of typhoons and droughts.

While Benguet came second, its neighboring provinces in the Cordillera had lower vulnerability assessment—Abra (ninth), Mt. Province (15th), Kalinga and Apayao (25th), and Ifugao (30th).

Francisco said the study’s conclusions were not meant to alarm residents and officials in the provinces included on the climate hazards vulnerability list.

“We came up with the conclusions to help local governments assess their own preparedness and undertakings for climate-change adaptation,” she said. –Delmar Cariño, Inquirer Northern Luzon