Foreign Studies

According to DR. MELGABAL CAPISTRANO this is the report of the Philippines to the 1999 Regional Disaster Conference. The information presented here follows the format requested by the conference organizers. It starts with a short background on the Philippines natural disaster situation. The next section tackles the Philippines national response to disaster reduction. Section 3 reviews the Philippines experience in international cooperation, with particular emphasis on Asian cooperation, in the field of natural disaster reduction. The report ends with prospects and recommendations for improved international cooperation.

The Philippine country report makes three key points. First, national disaster response is fundamentally adequate. Second, international cooperation in disaster reduction is an important element in strengthening national response. Third, further international cooperation can contribute substantially in further reducing the damage wrought by natural disasters. The Philippine disaster management program has a broad scope covering disaster preparedness, organization and training, construction of disaster reduction facilities, disaster response and rehabilitation, public information, and research and development.

Disaster preparedness is an essential element of the disaster management program. Disaster management plans of key agencies and organizations have been prepared, reviewed and updated. These plans are properly documented and are regularly tested for continuing relevance.

Organization and training are continuing disaster preparedness tasks which are performed by the various disaster coordinating councils. Over the past few years, various emergency services necessary during disasters have been developed in all the regions and provinces. Designated organizations have been oriented in their various roles in disaster management. Local chief executives, particularly those elected to their posts for the first time, have been provided training on disaster management to equip them to effectively lead their local disaster coordinating councils. Specialized skills in search and rescue, evacuation, disaster medicine, vulnerability analysis, damage assessment and first-aid have been widely undertaken

Local Studies
According to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the Philippines was the fourth most accident prone country in the world. The two institutions arrived at this conclusion after finding out that some 5,809,986 Filipinos were killed or injured as a result of disasters or man-made calamities over a ten-year period (1992-2001). If not for its smaller population, the Philippines could have been the world's second most accident-prone country after Iran.

Because of its large population, China topped the accident list, with 97,783,301 of its citizens affected by accidents during the ten-year period. It was followed by India, which reported 46,060,125 victims during the period. Both China and India have a population of over 1 billion people. Iran was third in the list, with 6,416,570 victims. Behind the Philippines were Ethiopia, with 3,334,266 victims; and Pakistan, 2,732,032 victims. The global report by International Red Cross said 535,416 people were killed in natural disasters and 86,947 others in industrial, transport and other "technological disasters" worldwide from 1992 to 2001. According to the Philippine Red Cross, 31,835 Filipinos were killed and 94,369,462 others were affected by natural disasters and calamities in a span of 20 years. "The Philippines was a natural laboratory for floods, typhoons, monsoon rains, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and landslides," Philippine National Red Cross governor Dante Liban said. (Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Foreign literature
According to Alex de Waal modern western societies invest
heavily in denying the inevitability of disaster. Denial demands much more than not thinking about something: it demands the construction of an entire apparatus dedicated to shielding society from the magnitude of what it does not want to face. There is a rich literature on denial of atrocities including most notably the Nazi Holocaust of European Jewry.1 Our denial of the inevitability of natural disaster also demands considerable effort.

This is aided by the fact that most environmental calamities unfold over generations, and sudden onset disasters arise because of decades of neglect and denial. As Jared Diamond notes in his book Collapsewhich deals largely with environmental changesocieties choose not to respond.2 Diamond insists that complex modern societies are just as prone to this failing as their historic predecessors, which had far more limited scientific knowledge and technologies. Complex societies just fail in more complicated ways. The story of this begins with how we frame our geographies and timescales, and how we divide the social labor of responsibility for contemplating calamity.