Start at the barangays

Figure 1.  Bacolor after lahars cascaded from Mt. Pinatubo (laharchild.co.uk)

  Kudos to the organizers!  We were bombarded this past couple of weeks by local—meaning, Pampanga-based—and national TV stations with their features on the 20th year commemoration of the eruption of Mount Pinatubo.  This evidently was the result of their admirable and praiseworthy untiring endeavor.

     If there is one thing that we, Kapampangans, should develop from these shows, as well as their repeated reruns, is our absolute trust in our collective ability to triumph over practically anything perilous under the sun. This was what our successful rising from the ashes of the eruption and its more vicious aftermath, the lahars, had unmistakably demonstrated to  us.  This, however, should not only apply to natural but to man-made disasters, as well. 

Figure 2.  Typical flood scene in Candaba, Pampanga (Sgt. Rey Brua/Reuters)

     These past few days, we witnessed how incessant rains induced by successive tropical weather disturbances had flooded more than 200 of 537 barangays throughout the province.  Some would remain under water, may be, even long after the last rains of the rainy season had fallen.  While the destruction this had wrought may not compare to that of the eruption and lahar onslaughts—although, the carryover clogging effects these had on natural waterways had obviously heightened the disaster risks we continuously confront today—the lessons we’d learned and still to cull from our triumphant feat over these natural hazards are indeed valuable and handy in these present times.  

Figure 3.  An emergency worker throws protective powder in a building
damaged by tsunami. (Aly Song/Reuters)

     Ideally, we should be nearing the Japanese in terms of our disaster risk management preparedness not only because of our experience with Mount Pinatubo eruption and the resultant lahar avalanches but, more importantly, since floods have always been with us since time immemorial—it is like the proverbial kambal tuko of our existence.  We should remember that our forebears dwelt on houses  on stilts along riverbanks—that’s why we’re called Kapampangans, “taga-pampang”.  

     What we cannot approximate, of course, are the resources and technology available to the Japanese and their government.  This is where the big difference lies between us as peoples.  The availability of these resources and technology accords the Japanese greater  capacity and makes them less vulnerable and more competent to face disasters and recover faster from their effects.

Figure 4.  Bacolor's typical rebuilt houses on stilts.  (www.alexmaskara.com)

      It’s good that our ingenuity as a people is comparable to, if not better than, that of the Japanese.  May be, this is our way to compensate for our deficiencies when ranged against  them.  There is no better reason to explain why we continue to survive as a people, especially the poor and the marginalized, despite the bare presence of our government especially in trying times.  This bare presence, though, should not be equated to the advocacy of the adherents of new public management, which believe in “minimalist state” and in “less government is better”.  

     In spite of what is magnified from time to time in mass media to the contrary, I’d like to believe Filipinos are capable of equally great unselfish acts that could rival those shown by the Japanese in the aftermath of the recent 9.1-magnitude quake and the resultant tsunami that hit their country.  Nameless and faceless Kapampangans, and other Filipinos too in similar situations in other provinces, repeatedly exhibited similar acts, albeit outside the klieg lights of big national and international news networks.  What is unfortunate, though, is that it was the abominable acts that get projected, which make post-disaster scenarios bleaker.  Worse, this makes a sizable number among us to believe that this is normally what happens in disaster areas throughout country.

     Is it then too much to ask the government to avert these disaster situations from happening to prevent fuelling further the development of this mistaken notion among other Filipinos?  I’m not, of course, asking the government to inhibit the occurrence of hazards, e.g. typhoons, earthquakes, floods, etc., which is definitely an impossibility.  But disaster situations could be prevented, or at least abated, by managing the risks;  that is why the disaster coordinating councils (DCCs) had evolved into disaster risk reduction and management councils (DRRMCs).  The DRRMCs are therefore pivotal to prevent these situations from taking place.  But are the DRRMCs ready?

     From experience, I would bravely venture to answer, no.   I based my retort from what I saw as project officer of CARE Philippines of its community-based disaster risk management project in Dingalan, Aurora from 2005-2006.  The Dingalan Municipal DCC claimed that their Barangay DCCs were organized and functional.  Yet, majority of the municipal government personnel comprising the MDCC professed ignorance on their supposed membership in the council during a table top assessment of their organization!  Only a few key department heads knew about their appointment in the council but not their complete roles and functions.   We didn’t have to physically see the BDCCs to know their true state.  Instead of being the exemption, non-functional DCCs was the rule during that period in accordance with our findings in our other project areas.   It’s no wonder then that even the relatively harmless hazards could turn into disasters because of this!

     Of course, that was a little over half a decade ago and a lot of things could have changed.  But given the state of our local—even national—governance, who and how our barangays, even municipalities and provinces, are run, I won’t speculate otherwise. How many lives were already lost despite the repeated pronouncements of “zero-casualty targets” of the National DRRMC at the start of this rainy season?

     In my final analysis, it is not enough that the government—and the civil society, too—can effectively conduct relief and rescue operations every after disaster.  What matters most is abating the disaster situations from happening by empowering the communities to effectively confront the risks and strengthening their capacities.  In the end, disaster preparedness, just like our aspiration for genuine democracy, has to start at the barangay level.  But how can this happened given the dire lack of competent leaders to lead and administer the barangays, the dire lack of skills to generate and manage resources and, more importantly, the dire failure to mobilize the people towards what appears to be an impossible dream? (30)