Disaster risk reduction: Stop talking, get moving

Since this column began on June 30, 2010, seven articles on disasters appeared on July 16 and September 29 that year; March 25, October 7 and 10, and December 21, 2011; and January 2 this year.

Besides responding to worsening typhoons and floods, the stories tapped this writer’s expertise as former secretary-general of the Special National Reconstruction Commission (SNPRC) created in late 2009 to raise funds for post-Ondoy rebuilding and propose initiatives for disaster risk reduction (DRR).

Sadly, the recurring articles were also occasioned by slow or absent government action on major recommendations contained in them. Too often, the Aquino administration has reacted to major calamities by casting blame on his predecessor and talking big about possible solutions without providing sustained presidential or Cabinet drive to actually put money and movement where Malacañang’s mouth is.

Indeed, when he assumed power in the middle of the 2010 typhoon season, Aquino did not meet with the National Disaster Coordinating Council until— you guessed it—Typhoon Basyang made a direct hit on Manila in mid-July. Nor did the Palace give attention to DRR recommendations made by SNPRC and its private-sector partner, Philippine Disaster Recovery Foundation, headed by PLDT Group CEO Manuel Pangilinan. The Palace asked this writer about the SNPRC-PDRF report only when media checked in September 2010 what had been done one year after Ondoy.

Aquino’s reactive mode of governance, with presidential sound-bites taking the place of tangible action, was again on full display last week, with talk of meeting local officials about disasters, holding them accountable for casualties, and building a P352-billion flood control system. These words give little comfort to those who remember Aquino’s pronouncements about tens of billions of pesos in public-private partnerships (PPP), and his order to probe local officials over last December’s floods in northern Mindanao.

As the disaster columns have repeatedly urged, such initiatives should be done proactively months before rains, so that mechanisms and structures to protect communities are in place well before creeks, rivers, lake and sea swell from mon-soon downpours.

President Aquino is right to press local government units to pay more attention to DRR. That’s why in January this writer called on him to meet with LGUs. Also urged in the New Year article was a full meeting of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council convened by the President to ensure that disaster preparedness programs would be competently implemented.

Had this meeting been called, the Metro Manila Development Authority might have been alerted to ensure that none of its Pasig pumping stations would fail. And Public Works Secretary Babes Singson might have moved sooner to dismantle floodway obstacles instead of threatening to blow them up only now.

It doesn’t help when the administration cancels or delays urgent DRR projects with claims of anomalies. There may have been good reason for Aquino to cancel the Belgian project to dredge Laguna Lake, just as his mother scrapped the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant. But just as the first Aquino administration should have built other generating facilities to replace the mothballed BNPP, the current government should have undertaken other flood mitigation measures in place of lake dredging.

Project delays can be fatal too. Secretary Singson rebid the urgently needed repair of facilities destroyed by Ondoy and Pepeng in 2009. Result: instead of being finished before last year’s Pedring and Quiel typhoons, repairs are due to be completed only next month, assuming last week’s inundations did not set back work and do more damage. And the claimed savings from rebidding were tiny compared with the damage and casualties that could have been prevented if construction had been done earlier.

So for the umpteenth time, can the President and the Cabinet please prioritize disaster risk reduction programs, making sure they are amply funded in the budget, and closely monitored and incessantly followed up during implementation. For this year, there may be need to realign allocations, especially for the speedy repair of dikes, spillways, pumping stations and other facilities essential to protect exposed communities.

As for the 2013 appropriations, Congress must exercise its power of the purse to ensure that DRR gets enough money, even if pet projects of the administration lose some largesse. Among life-saving undertakings that should get the billions they need is the relocation of families living along creeks, rivers and lakes, now estimated at 125,000. If it costs P100,000 per household to move them, that’s P12.5 billion. That’s less than one-third of the 2013 conditional cash transfer outlay needed to move nearly three-quarters of a million Filipinos out of harm’s way.

The P352-billion flood control plan announced by the President should also be fast-tracked. The SNPRC-PDRF report in fact called for such a long-term delta plan to be drafted with technical assistance from Holland, which had solved its own inundation problems in the 1950s. The NOAH flood warning system is another good move also urged by the two post-Ondoy bodies. And let’s not forget global warming adaptation measures urged by the Climate Change Commission.

In sum, top-level leadership and political will are indispensable if difficult, costly long-term calamity projects won’t be constantly set aside when the sun shines and the water ebbs. With his clout and popularity, President Aquino has pushed PPP, CCT and RH. He must now drive DRR.

Ricardo Saludo serves Bahay ng Diyos Foundation for church repair. He heads the Center for Strategy, Enterprise & Intelligence, publisher of The CenSEI Report on national and global issues ( report@censeisolutions.comThis email address is being protected from spambots. –RICARDO SALUDO, Manila Times