Disasters in 2009: Poor Filipinos victimized many times over

Janess Ann J. Ellao in Bulatlat.com (Philippines) writes a long, thoughtful piece about the response to the disasters: …It is the poor who are most affected by typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng. The homes of many informal settlers living along riverbanks and under bridges were washed away, carrying with it their meager belongings and, for some, even their loved ones. The most affected province in the country during Ondoy was Rizal because it sits at the foothills of the Sierra Madre mountain range, which has been terribly denuded and, in some areas, flattened.

High-end subdivisions were built along mountains with slopes of more than what Presidential Decree 705 or the Revised Forestry Code allows. The top of mountains in the towns of San Mateo, Rodriguez, Angono, Cainta and Marikina had been flattened and denuded to give way to these developments. Thus, when Ondoy hit the country, low-lying areas near the province of Rizal were inundated. Worse, mining and quarrying, which is common in Rizal, caused heavy siltation of the Marikina River so when the rains came, it overflowed thereby flooding the neighboring city of Pasig.

The denudation of the Sierra Madre mountain range extends up to Central Luzon, caused mainly by logging and mining activities. .Thus, when typhoon Pepeng hit the country, the floodwaters in towns in the region rose steadily and fast. Add to this the big dams such as the San Roque Dam, which is located also in the region, that had to release part of its reserves, worsening the flood.

The San Roque Dam was built to produce electricity. As the water level rises, it exerts more pressure on the turbines thereby making the production of electricity more efficient. When the water level at the San Roque dam rose, its administrators delayed releasing the water until it reached the maximum threshold level. By then they had to release water fast, instead of gradually, causing the destruction to low-lying areas.

The urban poor who are living along riverbanks and under bridges were victimized many times over. They are victims of poverty; they are the worst hit by disasters; they are being blamed for the devastation caused by the disaster; and they are being used by the government and politicians to gain media mileage.

....Instead of passing the Climate Change Act, the government could have passed the Disaster Risk Reduction Management Bill instead. The bill has been pending in Congress in the past nine years. Carlos Padolina, deputy director of the Citizen’s Disaster Response Center, said the proposed bill is aimed at preparing and empowering the people by providing them with trainings, from the village to the national levels, on how to react and what to do in times of disasters…

Aftermath of Typhoon Ondoy, shot by Philippinepresidency, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License