It was heartbreaking to see the television footage of desperate mothers begging for alms and food from passers-by. How can that image be reconciled with a life of dignity and honor guaranteed by the Constitution to each human being? The hapless women were among the survivors of Typhoon Pablo, and perhaps unknowing victims of an inept government that caused the loss of hundreds of lives and the destruction of countless homes and school buildings in the southern part of Mindanao.
It is rather callous to say, “Stop blaming” for the latest tragedy that again engulfed the mining communities in Compostela Valley and other typhoon-stricken areas. How many preventable deaths have occurred and will have to happen before lessons are learned from disaster responses that are more knee-jerk in nature than collectively planned?
President Benigno Aquino III cannot deny that local government units which are under his supervision and the executive agencies which are under his control are still wanting in using available tools and inviting public participation to help ensure the safety of residents especially in hazard-prone localities.
Is having an evacuation center in a hazardous area not deemed a “gross dereliction of duties” that should merit sanctions under RA 10121, the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (DRRM) Act of 2010? The DRRM Law was among the last of the laws that Gloria Arroyo signed as President in 2010. Surely, more than enough time had lapsed for local government units or LGUs and stakeholders to build their capacity and craft their respective climate change action and DRRM plans together.
Under RA 10121, five percent of the LGUs revenues should be set aside for DRRM, 70 percent of which will be for training and acquisition of necessary equipment and 30 percent to be used for contingencies. Why then are survivors on their own for food and necessities?
The late Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) secretary Jesse Robredo came up with a step-by-step Compendium of Disaster Preparedness and Response Protocol. The Primer on the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Plan for 2011 to 2028 was also released. Both are downloadable in DILG’s website.
Is it not within the powers and responsibilities of DILG and the supervising local government units, in coordination with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, to make sure that each of the barangays, municipalities, cities and provinces is in full compliance of the requirements of Republic Act No. 8729, the Climate Change Act of 2009, as amended by Republic Act No. 10174, which incorporated the People’s Survival Fund, and Republic Act 10121, the DRRM Law?
Did the President not commit in his Social Contract with the people to “a leadership that executes all the laws of the land with impartiality and decisiveness?”
Yet, why are LGUs not held accountable for their failure to implement the various laws and the necessary measures to make the constituents more resilient to disasters? There is certainly no excuse for inefficiency and ineffectiveness in responding to disasters.
There is something fundamentally wrong in merely going through the notion of declaring a state of calamity, then going back to business-as-usual and pretending that no one died and that there is a growing number of environmental refugees in our midst.
As I have noted, time and again, for as long as a genuine barangay development councils which stand as the barangay DRRM unit are allowed not to be activated, with people excluded from participation in the decision-making process, tragedies such as those that befell in Mindanao and Cebu are bound to be repeated.
Will this latest of devastating typhoons awaken the government to the fact of climate change and that the Philippines stands to suffer than most countries for every ton of carbon emission in the atmosphere? Will it now seriously implement the National Climate Change Action Plan?
Will the government now go for renewable sources of energy and reconsider its approval of the operation of several coal-fired power plants that will contribute to the increase of carbon in the atmosphere?
Will the Comprehensive National Land Use Plan bill become a law soon and will a reclamation moratorium be declared as well?
Will the Aquino administration implement its commitment to mainstream the valuation of ecosystem services, as it did commit to do under the Philippine Development Plan, 2011 to 2016?
Will it now transform to be “a government that will encourage sustainable use of resources to benefit the present and future generations” from ”a government obsessed with exploiting the country for immediate gains to the detriment of its environment” as it so declared in President Aquino’s Social Contract? Lest it be forgotten, climate change has exacerbated and will exacerbate the loss and destruction of the vanishing species of flora and fauna in this country, the hottest of the megadiverse hot spots in the world.
Today, Human Rights Day is celebrated all over the world. It is timely that this year’s theme is “Inclusion and the right to participate in public life.” This has become more meaningful in our country where such right is guaranteed by no less than the Constitution (Article XIII, Section 16) yet, the situation is still a far cry from what should be.
Many are still excluded from participating in decisions that affect them and their future. Others are languishing in detention or sued for speaking their mind and availing of remedies for their grievances against government.
I am hoping for that day when full respect for human rights and for non-humans will become a reality in our beautiful but so vastly threatened archipelago.