The Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (DRRM) of the Philippine government has achieved a lot since the enactment of RA10121 in 2010.
Learning from the lessons of TS Ondoy with its massive floodings in 2009, the DRRM of the country has managed to re-organize and re-orient itself towards more that relief and response phases. Now, it has put a premium not only in relief and response but also to preparation and a large part into recovery and rehabilitation.
With training emphasized together with broad information dissemination, DRRM today has already established a corps of trainors and responders together with protocols and contingencies for different disaster scenarios. It was said the Philippine DRRM was ready. Yolanda in 2013 proved them wrong.
It was acknowledged that relief, rescue and response would be severely degraded with such magnitude of disaster. What cannot be explained is the slow pace of recovery and rehabilitation of the Yolanda survivors.
This will try to bring the scope of DRRM with regards to recovery and rehabilitation. It should be noted that there are steps initially and then done even at the same time.
1. Budget. DRRM must have a budget to work with. Yolanda was so massive in scope that budgeted reaction funds were depleted. It was vital that budgeting be adjusted for the rehabilitation not only of infrastructure but also of agricultural lands and commercial properties and livelihood.
2. Infrastructure. This entails the DPWH to prioritize the repair and rehabilitation of airports, seaports, roads, power, water and communication lines. Together with repair of government buildings and schools. This proved to be more expensive than thought at first but these were done relatively fast.
3. Social Relief. It must be noted that food and water are basic necessities but there must be a return to normal life as soon as possible. The livelihood of people must be restored or new livelihood activities must be established. Aside from material benefits, this will give the survivors a modicum of dignity since they will be self reliant.
4. Livelihood. The government and its agencies must be able to provide an ecology with regards to economic and financial rehabilitation of the survivors. Farms must be cleared and replanted. Store must be replenished and a means of financing must be given to the survivors. It is akin to a survival financing program.
5. Housing. This is one of the most difficult since land in safe areas must be procured by the government. Roads, power and water must also be part of the development together with proximate livelihood for the relocates. This is what takes time in Recovery and rehabilitation.
The Keyword is Building Safer and Better
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