Sunday Lifestyle

Why is this tropical paradise also disaster-prone?

April 26, 2009 | 12:00am

There are two big forces at work, external and internal. We have very little control over external forces such as tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, disasters, illness and pain. What really matters is the internal force. How do I respond to those disasters?

— Leo Buscaglia

BEIJING, China — Why is our beautiful tropical paradise of the Philippines also coincidentally one of the places on earth most often ravaged by natural as well as man-made disasters — from typhoons, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes to the biggest maritime ship accidents, endless political mayhem and the boundless ineptitude of our many politicians? Can we do something about this situation, and if so, what and how?

Here are some startling, sobering and thought-provoking facts that should awaken in us an attitude of disaster risk reduction and prevention, not just the traditional priority of disaster relief:

• There are usually an estimated 22 typhoons passing by the Philippines every year, nine of which will make landfall and five will be destructive.

• Over the past 36 years, the Philippines has suffered six major earthquakes.

• Though we were spared by the Indian Ocean tsunami that hit Thailand and other neighbors, the Philippines has actually been hit by 26 tsunamis since 1677, the last one occurring in Mindoro province on Nov. 15, 1994.

• We have 300 volcanoes in our archipelago, of which 22 are active.

• The Philippines has many of the world’s worst sea accidents, with antiquated and overloaded ships often causing thousands of deaths.

• In 2006 alone, disasters had a total negative impact on the Philippine economy of P20 billion or four percent of the gross domestic product, not counting the social, emotional and other human costs.

• A Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) study said that a 7.2 magnitude earthquake could possibly cause 33,500 deaths, 114,000 injuries, and damage to 38 percent of residential buildings or 1.3 million structures.

Coincidentally, on the day Finland Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen and Albania Prime Minister Sali Berisha arrived in the seemingly new global diplomatic capital of Beijing, this writer was on the same Philippine Airlines flight heading here as VIPs Senator Loren Legarda, Energy Secretary Angelo “Angie” Reyes, Congressman Mark Cojuangco, CNN China bureau chief Jaime FlorCruz, National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women chairperson Myrna T. Yao, National Power Corp. president Froilan Tampinco and others.

Thanks to our hosts, the All-China Women’s Federation (which owns the five-star Jianguo Garden Hotel complex where we stayed) and the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR), Philippine STAR has the only writer from the ASEAN region to be accredited as a delegate to the April 20 to 22 International Conference on Gender & Disaster Risk Reduction. A source of pride for the Philippines, Senator Loren Legarda was the keynote speaker at this convention attended by leaders, civil society representatives and diplomats from 50 countries.

Unknown to many, Senator Legarda is the UNISDR Regional Champion for Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation for the Asia-Pacific. To translate this into layman’s language, she’s the UN advocate and special emissary promoting disaster prevention awareness and mitigation as well as pushing environmental initiatives to ease the global climate change crisis. Another top UNISDR official is a Filipino specialist Emmanuel “Manny” M. de Guzman.

To be honest, I first thought this international conference had an esoteric, boring and convoluted theme, until Senator Loren Legarda and Manny de Guzman explained the following points in their international advocacy on disaster risk reduction:

• Disasters are not “acts of God” to which we humans are helpless victims; they do happen, but we human beings can and must do something to reduce, prevent and proactively respond to disasters.

• A disaster’s effects are determined by a community’s vulnerability and its preparedness to cope with it.

• For every dollar invested in disaster mitigation and preparedness, we can save up to seven dollars in losses and destruction.

• Disaster risk reduction (DRR) is a prerequisite of sustainable development.

• Reducing disaster risks is not only the responsibility of government, but all stakeholders and sectors of a society.

• Earthquakes do not kill people, but unsafe buildings, bridges and other structures do.

• Many of the world’s disasters are nowadays caused by climate change, or the unusual heating up the earth due to our pollution.

• Disaster risk reduction (DRR) advocates and specialists hope that this concept of minimizing and reducing disasters will be incorporated into government socio-economic development planning, land-use regulatory standards and other laws, and the DRR concept should be propagated to the general public through the mass media, schools and other means.

• 80 percent of the world’s disasters are related to the global climate change crisis, therefore all of us should be environmentalists. We can plant trees, fight pollution, save energy and be efficient in use of energy and other proactive measures.

Now my question is: How do we prevent, mitigate and decisively stop the biggest of all disasters, which is the generally cynical, often toxic and excessively corrupt politics of the Philippines?

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