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Typhoon Frank, the latest tropical cyclone to hit the
country, exacted a heavy toll, according to the National
Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC).
Overall, damage is estimated to hit the P7-billion mark
while the number of fatalities has reached more than
700. Damage to infrastructure stands at P1.6 billion,
school buildings and classrooms at P518.7 million and
agriculture at P5.2 billion.
The
typhoon also cut a wide swath of destruction across the
country, from Luzon to Mindanao, with Iloilo province
bearing the brunt of its fury.
The
NDCC count placed the number of fatalities in
typhoon-ravaged regions at 540, but this does not
include the more than 700 still to be recovered from the
sunken MV Princess of the Stars off Sibuyan Island. A
total of 216 died in Western Visayas alone, another 291
were injured while 41 were reported missing.
In the
long roster of natural and man-made tragedies in this
country, Typhoon Frank may not have been as deadly and
destructive as earlier ones.
But it
highlights, once again, our vulnerability to disasters,
and, as shown by the agonizingly slow pace of retrieval
operations in the latest maritime tragedy, our inability
to respond adequately when calamity strikes.
Don’t
get us wrong. We acknowledge the help extended by
government agencies, the private sector, non-government
organizations, as well as the private individuals in
alleviating the suffering of victims. Foreign
governments, such as the United States, Australia and
others, have also rushed aid to the typhoon-stricken
areas and provided assistance in search and rescue, as
well as in relief and rehabilitation operations.
But
the sad reality is that, as a Third World country, our
capabilities in disaster management are severely
constricted by our limited resources.
Rescue
teams onboard bancas with outriggers and small rubber
boats rushed to the capsized Sulpicio Lines vessel
shortly after the tragedy, but what could they do but
wait until those with the proper equipment and training
could get to the insides of the ship?
Limited resources also kept a team deployed by the
Philippine National Police Maritime Group from getting
to the disaster area at once, since they had to take a
regular passenger ship to Romblon, and had even had to
hitch a ride with a television news crew to get to the
tragedy site.
The
country occupies the western rim of the Pacific Ocean.
We are situated within the so-called typhoon belt and we
are visited by as many as 20 typhoons annually, causing
floods, tidal waves and landslides. We are also located
within an encircling belt of active volcanoes and fault
lines. In fact, not too long ago, a research institution
in Belgium, if we’re not mistaken, citing empirical
data, categorized the Philippines as the country most
vulnerable to natural disasters, including drought.
But
our misfortunes do not end with natural catastrophes.
Man-made disasters, such as armed conflict and terrorist
bombings, exact their own heavy toll on lives and
properties. And we’re not even talking of the scale and
depths of poverty in the country, with millions
consigned to living a hand-to-mouth existence, due in
part to endemic corruption. Widespread poverty, in turn,
has fueled an armed insurgency in the Philippine
countryside that has raged for four decades, and which,
by itself, may be considered a continuing disaster
because it acts as a drag on the country’s economic and
social development.
In
Greek mythology, there’s Sisyphus, a king of Corinth,
who was punished in hell for his misdeeds by eternally
having to roll a heavy stone up a hill: every time he
approached the top, the stone escaped his grasp and
rolled to the bottom. When we speak of Sisyphean labor,
we refer to an actually or seemingly endless and futile
enterprise.
Our
best efforts at improving our economy and accelerating
nation-building would seem to be an exercise in futility
because we are stymied, time and again, by both natural
and man-made disasters. Last year the Arroyo
administration boasted of 7.3 percent gross domestic
product growth. This year, with skyrocketing oil-price
hikes and high inflation rates, growth projections are
expected to go down to 6.5 percent or thereabouts. But
this projection has not factored in the 15 or more
typhoons the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and
Astronomical Services Administration says will hit the
country for the rest of the year.
We can
stop typhoons, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions from
taking place with as much success as King Canute can bid
ocean waves to keep still. But we can keep both natural
and man-made catastrophes from wreaking widespread death
and destruction.
We
know that Typhoon Frank will not be the last to visit
this country. We also know that the increase in the
frequency of disasters reflects changing climate
patterns and accelerated global warming.
What
we must do now is to keep natural occurrences from
turning into human and economic disasters. We must break
the cycle of destruction and reconstruction and address
the root causes of vulnerability, rather than merely
treating its symptoms when disasters happen.
The
fundamental problems of development the country faces
are the very same problems that contribute to our
vulnerability to the catastrophic effects of natural
hazards. We now have rapid and uncontrolled
urbanization, widespread urban and rural poverty,
degradation of the environment resulting from the
mismanagement of natural resources, inadequate and
inefficient social services and lagging and misguided
investments in infrastructure. The fact is that we have
largely focused on emergency response rather than
investing in natural-hazard prevention and mitigation.
It is
time to adopt a proactive stance and a more
comprehensive approach to disaster management that
encompasses prevention and mitigation to address the
structural sources of vulnerability; emergency
preparedness and response to enhance a country’s
readiness to cope quickly and effectively with an
emergency; and postdisaster rehabilitation and
reconstruction to support effective recovery and to
safeguard against future disasters.
In
short, we should place disaster prevention and
mitigation at the forefront of the country’s development
agenda.
As we
have pointed out, we can only do so much given our state
of development—or underdevelopment. For us to cope
effectively with disasters, we must eliminate wrenching
poverty at the grassroots, first and foremost.
Despite our limitations in resources, we can do much to
alleviate human suffering. We need not spend an eternity
rolling a heavy stone up a hill, only to see it escaping
our grasp. Beyond storming the heavens with prayer, we
simply have to employ logic and reason so that the
nation can move forward instead of rolling down to the
bottom every time disaster strikes. |
