'Phl more exposed to climate risks'

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Loren Legarda has raised serious concerns anew on the country’s state of exposure to disaster and climate risks, stressing that the Philippines continues to climb up in global rankings on climate vulnerability.

Legarda, chair of the Senate committee on climate change, said it is alarming that despite the legal mechanisms in place such as the Climate Change Act and the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act, the country has yet to reduce disaster and climate risks as established by global statistics.

“It is lamentable that despite our efforts to strengthen the country’s defense against the adverse effects of natural hazards and of the changing climate, we remain high in climate-vulnerability indices. Our policies are all in place, we just need the faithful implementation of these laws,” she said.

Legarda noted that the Mortality Risk Index in 2009 by the United Nations International Strategy on Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) placed the Philippines 12th among the 200 countries most at risk from cyclones, floods, earthquakes and landslides.

In 2010, the Climate Change Vulnerability Index ranked the country sixth most climate-vulnerable nation, while the 2011 World Risk Index considered the Philippines as the third most vulnerable to disaster risks and natural hazards.

“Do we have to wait for us to be at the top of these climate-vulnerability rankings? The whole world is telling us, matter-of-factly, that we are in great danger every time a natural hazard hits us, yet it seems we always wait for disasters to happen before we learn the painful lesson that the lack of preparedness against disasters takes a huge toll in our country as more people die and more resources and investments are lost,” she explained.

In view of the changes in the environment affecting the country, Legarda said the disaster risk reduction and management system needs to be more proactive, coherent and effective.

“We have to establish early warning systems, make our infrastructure disaster-resilient, make our communities prepared whenever natural hazards occur, and we must link disaster risk reduction and preparedness to development planning.

We will not train our sights merely on enhancing our capacities to rebuild in times of disasters; but rather on reducing risks for our people and building lasting communities,” she said.