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Aid groups urge Aquino to focus more on disaster risk reduction

Philippine president should make community-based plans 'part of his legacy'
Aid groups urge Aquino to focus more on disaster risk reduction

A typhoon survivor walks past makeshift homes in Tacloban after the disaster brought by Typhoon Haiyan in 2013. (Photo by Joe Torres)

Published: July 29, 2015 07:38 AM GMT
Updated: July 28, 2015 10:12 PM GMT

International aid groups have called on Philippine President Benigno Aquino to make "community-based disaster risk reduction" policies part of his legacy before leaving office in 2016.

"We have seen one major natural hazard after another, and the chances are the next one is not far away, so we always need to be prepared," Justin Morgan, country director of Oxfam, said July 29.

Morgan, who also heads a consortium working in high-risk communities in the country, said Aquino admitted more needs to be done in terms of disaster risk reduction. 

"We hope he will lead the government in institutionalizing stronger disaster risk reduction policies throughout the country," said Morgan of the Scaling Up Resilience In Governance (SURGE) consortium.

SURGE this week commended government efforts in disaster preparedness, such as issuing warnings that averted higher death tolls, and also in rehabilitation programs that help disaster survivors.

In 2013, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake hit Bohol province, killing 222 people and displacing more than 300,000 others. Typhoon Haiyan, also in 2013, killed at least 7,500 people and left some four million people displaced. 

SURGE, however, questioned the government's commitment to initiatives for building resilience against future calamities.

"A stronger and inclusive [disaster risk reduction law] must provide more technical assistance, better institutional mechanisms, and a clear financing strategy ... especially those in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas," Morgan said.

He said the law must also ensure that women, children, youth and people with disabilities participate in drawing up and implementing plans.

In a 2013 United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction global survey focused on people with disabilities, only 17 percent of respondents said they were aware of disaster management plans in their community, while only 14 percent said they were consulted on them.

Meanwhile, the country's Catholic bishops on July 29 urged people to take part in an earthquake drill on July 30 in Metro Manila to test the resiliency of people in the national capital in case of a 7.2-magnitude earthquake.

The drill involves educating people about what to do if an earthquake strikes and what to do in its aftermath.

Some six million people are expected to participate in the drill, which will last for an hour in 16 cities in the National Capital Region.

"Every Catholic should be a good citizen. It's part of good citizenship to be involved in matters like this that will benefit the general welfare," said Archbishop Socrates Villegas, president of the bishops' conference.

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