Adaptation doings in the Philippines

GMA News (Philippines): For eight months, photographer Jose Enrique Soriano visited key areas in Surigao and Southern Leyte to interact with communities whose livelihood and ways of life are under threat due to severe flooding, drought and changing rainfall patterns. The photo exhibit "Visage: Portraits of Filipinos Facing Climate Change" is Soriano's first in four years. The elusive photographer was sought out by climate policy think tank Institute of Climate and Sustainable Cities (iCSC) to capture images of people directly affected by climate change.

Meanwhile, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile renewed his call to pass the People's Survival Fund (PSF), a milestone measure which will dedicate climate change adaptation financing to local governments and communities. Enrile made the call after touring the Visage photo exhibit, saying that Soriano's photos "are haunting reminders of our urgent obligation to extend support to communities living on the frontline of the climate crisis."

Senator Loren Legarda, chair of the Senate Climate Change Committee and author of the Climate Change Act of 2009, echoed Enrile and said the PSF bill is "One significant step our country can take towards climate change resiliency is passing the People’s Survival Fund Bill," said Legarda. "The PSF intends to create a special trust fund that would finance adaptation projects and programs for the most vulnerable among us—such as those whose portraits are found here," Legarda explained.

The PSF bill intends to fund the adaptation programs of local governments situated in particularly vulnerable areas. Activites that can be supported include supporting innovations in irrigation in regions where drought or intense rainfall conditions are expected to become the annual norm. Others include support ecosystem based risk management...

Not from the photo exhibition, unfortunately. This is a US Navy shot of a field in the Aklan is flooded after Typhoon Fengshen hit the region in 2008