Disasters

Thousands of Filipinos were killed and millions worth of properties were destroyed when storm surges brought by super typhoon Yolanda surprised the residents of Eastern Visayas in November.

Malacañang on Monday said that small-scale mining operations in Mindanao were to blame for the death toll of Tropical Depression Agaton. The number of fatalities from the first calamity to hit the country this year increased to 40 as of Sunday, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) reported.

IN just 60 days, more than four million Filipinos were displaced by a series of calamities that struck the country, according to an international relief agency.

MANILA, Philippines – More than 20,000 workers who lost their livelihoods following Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) are now working in emergency employment programs (EEP), according to the International Labor Organization (ILO). This will speed up recovery of typhoon-hit communities and boost their local economies.

The Philippines’ economy has enough fuel to withstand the risks posed by the damage caused by killer Typhoon Yolanda and the eventual tapering of the US Federal Reserves’ bond purchases, debt-watcher Moody’s Investors Service said.

QUEZON CITY, Dec 9 (PIA) — Government’s emergency employment and cash for work programmes in typhoon ravaged provinces are getting technical and financial support from the International Labour Organization (ILO). Just like in Negros Occidental, Northern Cebu, Leyte and Samar, ILO teams are now working closely with their DOLE counterparts in implementing emergency employment in…

MANILA, Philippines – The International Labor Organization (ILO) sees slow recovery for the typhoon-devastated city of Tacloban in Leyte, but it said residents still have a better life ahead of them.

MANILA, Philippines – Some 18,016 displaced people or 4,352 families in Haiyan-hit islands Samar and Leyte flocked to Manila on board the government’s C-130 flights from November 16 to 29, Presidential Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said in a radio interview on Sunday, December 1.

TACLOBAN CITY – Tens of thousands of desperately needed jobs are being created for survivors of a catastrophic typhoon in the Philippines by paying them to clear mountains of waste from ruined cities and farms.

Two labor recruitment agencies will help at least 500 victims of Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) find work abroad free of charge, the Department of Labor and Employment on Thursday said.

MANILA, Philippines – Most of the workers affected by typhoon “Yolanda” in the Visayas are from the service sector, the International Labour Organization (ILO) said on Thursday.

Super typhoon Yolanda is an opportunity for Tacloban and the rest of the Visayas to reboot in a sustainable and democratic way, and perhaps even become a model of development. But the rebuilding process must be re-thought. The old ways will not survive future calamities, especially with global warming and its stronger, more frequent storms.

Japan has allotted $500,000 to help victims who lost jobs because of typhoon Yolanda that devastated the Eastern and Central Visayas.

PRESIDENT Aquino, after a marathon meeting with his Cabinet on Wednesday, approved in principle a three-stage recovery plan for several provinces devastated by Supertyphoon Yolanda (international code name Haiyan).

MANILA, Philippines – The International Labor Organization (ILO) is helping government provide emergency employment to millions of people who lost their livelihoods to Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan). (READ: Coconut farmers face ruin after Haiyan)

The Philippines is in the Top 3 countries most affected by climate-related weather catastrophes in 2012 according to Berlin-based environmental organization Germanwatch.

MANILA, Philippines – The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates that around 440,000 workers were left jobless, most of them in the fishery sector following the 7.2-magnitude killer earthquake that rocked Central Visayas in the middle of last month.

MANILA, Philippines – Natural disasters like typhoons kept many poor Filipinos below the poverty line, the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) said as it released Philippine poverty data for the first half of 2012.

While I advocate a stronger national agency for disaster risk reduction and management, much of the fieldwork in all phases of DRRM—preparation/mitigation, response, and rehabilitation/recovery—will be borne on the shoulders of local government units. A strong national agency will be necessary for LGUs to lean on, not just when help is needed during and after…

The government of Indonesia is hosting the fifth Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (AMCDRR) in Yogyakarta, which comes on the heels of the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction on Oct. 13. Both events show global concern about disasters.

ASIAN RISK REDUCTION CONFERENCE YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia—The Philippines is one of four disaster-prone countries in the Asia-Pacific region that have reduced their vulnerability to disasters despite their poverty, according to two United Nations (UN) agencies.

From flash floods and landslides to earthquakes and super typhoons, the Philippines has seen them all. So it’s no wonder that the country ranked third out of 173 countries in terms of susceptibility to disasters —next to small island nations Vanuatu and Tonga, also in the South Pacific, according to the World Risk Index of…

MANILA, Philippines – President Aquino signed an executive order that activates the practical guide to organized government response during emergencies for both national and local crisis management committees.

MANILA, Philippines – Several of the country’s top corporate executives and entrepreneurs gathered together yesterday for the Top Leaders Forum: Building an Asian Private Partnership to Make Corporations Safer Against Disasters at the SMX Convention Center.

Future disaster risks are set to become more complex — and the international community needs stronger and more integrated preventive measures to mitigate these. This was among key takeaways from a high-level conference on disaster risk reduction held last week in Davos, Switzerland. The 4th International Disaster Risk Conference, which was titled “Integrated Management in…

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.

Recent natural disasters have left an indelible scar in our collective memory. Last week’s monsoon rains left us again trembling and whimpering. Late Monday night, as the rains poured in copious furious buckets, some of us decided to wait it out at the office till the weather calmed down. The rains hardly stopped — there…

EXTREME climatic events such as typhoons and floods will be more frequent and severe in the future and no country, including the Philippines, is immune from worsening and recurrent disasters, a United Nations official said.

MANILA, Philippines – Call center agents and other workers who reported for work despite the heavy rains and massive flooding last Tuesday would get extra pay. Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said the law provides extra pay for workers who were required to render services in times of calamities.

This type of hurricane is a very strong tempest, so many and so strong hitting these islands that neither Virgil nor Ovid nor any other poet I have read can describe its destructive power. These occur very often and we suffer so much, that even after experiencing them, it is difficult to believe these can…