‘Politics may hinder Yolanda rehab’

MANILA, Philippines - For the top UN official on disaster risk reduction, politics is a difficult issue to deal with in the midst of rehabilitation efforts in areas devastated by Super Typhoon Yolanda.

UN Secretary General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction Margareta Wahlström lamented that preparations for the May 2016 elections might get in the way of the full rehabilitation of Yolanda-stricken areas.

“It would be very sad if things were delayed because of prospective elections,” Wahlström said on Friday.

Wahlström, also the head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, was among the more than 150 representatives, mostly from Asia and Europe, who participated in the Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM) Manila Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction and Management that detailed new policies and principles involving disaster preparation.

The UN official said the crisis itself often generates tension that can be the source of bickering and differences of opinion, but she stressed that it is not appropriate for them to judge what is right or wrong.

“That’s a difficult issue and this is typical also for reconstruction. In the first phase people are much more focused on the humanitarian issues, it’s more neutral, and with the next phase the political perspectives do enter and they can be very strong sometimes,” Wahlström said, adding, “It’s not always very easy to understand what goes on but clearly this perspective is everywhere, not only in the Philippines.”

She said things are moving but not as fast as everyone would want, and this causes tension.

“It’s very understandable if I had lost everything, my house, maybe family members, my job and I knew that there is a plan about housing and rebuilding, I will be extremely impatient as well. So there’s always this tension between people’s expectation for speed. It’s not an expectation; it’s a need to rebuild,” she said.