The six million dollar question is: how many more incidents like those in Carmen, Bohol and Cebu City and the other ones in Leyte, Samar will we be expecting?
Were the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Philvolcs) prepared adequately enough with equipment to monitor ground movement, tectonic plate disturbance, the nearly 100 deaths could have been avoided. 27 Billion Philippine Pesos is earmarked for pork barrel in the 2014 General Appropriations Act out of a total expenditure program of 2.26 Trillion Philippine Pesos. Would it be difficult to allocate even half of that pork barrel budget for emergency preparedness, disaster risk reduction, equipment upgrade?
Past Warnings of Big Disaster
This site has been warning the public for more than four years since the time of the former President, Mrs. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Due to the total torpedoing of the private sector (Corinthian Gardens, Forbes Park, Dasmarinas Village, the owners of high rise condominiums at the left side of EDSA southbound, among others), of the program for predicting highly lethal effects of a major tremor in Metro Manila and the replication of this effort in many urban areas in the country by the same sector in collusion with some corrupt officials in the government, a large disaster and environmental hazards summit was proposed to be supported by the Philippine Government and the United Nations, among other institutions from many other sectors - including the non-profit (minus the Napoles et al NGOs).
Wanting responses
It is reiterated that in the time of Mrs. Arroyo, only the then Administrator of the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA), Ms. Elaine Bautista, now Mrs. Horn, had the small effort to make an email message to the proponents of the 2010 Disaster and Environmental Hazards Mapping Summit. And that was only because the United Nations Environment Programm (UNEP) told the former Ms. Bautista to get in touch with HMES 2010 organizing group. At the time, concurrent to her post in MARINA, Ms. Bautista was considered a friend of UNEP and a significant point person for the Philippine Government in relation to selected UNEP concerns - particularly about emergency and assistance.
When Mr. Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino 3rd became President, the organizing group wrote to Ms. Corazon Juliano Soliman of the Department of Social Welfare and Development and Gen. Voltaire Tuvera Gazmin. Ms. Soliman did not respond. It was noticed however that several days later, Gen. Gazmin, the Secretary of the Department of National Defense gave an interview to national media.
In that interview, when Gazmin was asked about what the people should do when a disaster strikes, he replied: "Run for your lives."
Gallery of disaster earthquakes in Bohol, Cebu and Negros Oriental
Carrying the barest minimum luggage in their bodies, the poor, helpless people in above photos must have taken advice similar to that of Gen. Voltaire Gazmin's to leave and forget belongings elsewhere and to "run for your lives."
It will appear that the kind of response the government has given is exceedingly wanting in substance. It is hoped however that as a grandfather and parent, Gazmin to no fault of his own was merely showing his personal concern for the safety of the life of the average citizen. He was probably very well-meaning and was admonishing the people not to bring their television sets, beds, furniture, cash safety vaults, washing machines, cabinets, sofa, stoves with their fuel gas tanks, desk-stand-ceiling fans, air conditioners, desktop computers and refrigerators outside of their homes and instead to proceed to a more safe location and be saved in time of major catastrophe.
The head of the Philvolcs, Dr. Renato Solidum absolutely cannot be faulted and is blameless. For decades, had been ready to accept the support for equipment upgrade and modernization. Despite the billions of funds allocated to the departments of the government, the great oversight of perpetually forgetting to take care of the Philvolcs modernization programme has consistently been committed by this government.
Despite the billions lost for the personal enrichment of selected persons in our public sector and their intimate partners in very enterprising undertakings in the private sector, no one has shown keen interest in allowing the Philvolcs to finally get hold of the adequate funding for acquisition of hardware and software that will highly increase its forecasting accuracy and its earthquake trending studies and research on the major faults all over the country. Click here for more.
To address the problem, a bill at the Senate of the Philippines will be passed into law to support in the recovery efforts of the people of Bohol, Cebu and Negros Oriental.
SIXTEENTH
CONGRESS OF THE REPUBLIC )
OF THE PHILIPPINES )
_________ Regular Session )
SENATE
S.B. No. __________
Introduced by Senator Ferdinand R Marcos Jr
EXPLANATORY NOTE
The provinces of Bohol, Cebu and in recent past, Negros Oriental,
Philippines suffered massive, extremely dangerous earthquakes. Such disasters
left deep, indelible imprints on the national psyche and upon people all over
the world thus the incidents demand our undivided attention.
Pursuant to Section 4, Article II of 1987 Philippine Constitution
providing, “The prime duty of the Government is to serve and protect the
people”, the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010 (RA 10121) was
enacted into law. With this, Philippine DRRM Plan 2011-2028 was adopted to
ensure that the government shall establish and strengthen capacities of
communities to anticipate, cope and recover from the negative impact of
emergency occurrences and disasters. The DILG as the Vice Chair for
Preparedness of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council
(NDRRMC) issued a Memorandum Circular No. 2012-79 to implement the Seal of
Disaster Preparedness. The aimed at recognizing and incentivizing local
governance performance in institutionalizing disaster preparedness, and to
assess performance gaps, link gaps to policy or program intervention and
monitor improvements on disaster preparedness. In the recent Bohol-Cebu
calamity, the resulting effects from the earthquake, are as follows:
1.
Fatalities: more than 218 persons dead
2.
Missing: more than 8 persons unaccounted for as this time
3.
In Bohol lone, more than 120,000 persons displaced and evacuated.
4.
Civilians Injured in Bohol province alone : 760
5.
More than seventy nine (79) designated evacuation centers in Bohol-Cebu
were filled to the brim with displaced persons.
6.
Loss and damage to property estimated at more or less in the range of 10
billion pesos with a cost of reconstruction reaching up to 20 billion pesos
Thus said, the recent calamity that hit Bohol and Cebu City resulted in enormous
loss to the people in terms of structures. Ground shift, water retreat from the
affected areas’ sea lines, these are merely some of the effects of the disaster
in Bohol, Cebu and continue to be suffered by the population in Negros Oriental
that in recent past also suffered a massive earthquake. Infrastructure damage
is estimated at not less than fifteen billion Philippine Pesos (PHP15-B) in all
three areas of Bohol, Cebu and Negros. These assessments form part of the early
findings only on the overall worth of the destruction brought about by the
calamity.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) office in Bohol-Cebu, according to its Officer-in-Charge, Allan Rommel R. Labayog,
suffered intense shaking in the PHIVOLCS seismic vault that subsequently damaged the earthquake sensor equipment of PHIVOLCS in the
area. This makes the PHIVOLCS now handicapped to monitor earthquakes in said
area in the immediate future and needs to be addressed as soon as possible.
In paragraph 2, Section 23, Article VI of the Philippine Constitution,
it is stated that “in times of war or other national emergency, the Congress
may, by law, authorize the President, for a limited period and subject to such
restrictions as it may prescribe, to exercise powers necessary and proper to
carry out a declared national policy. Unless sooner withdrawn by resolution of
the Congress, such powers shall cease upon the next adjournment thereof.” In
paragraph 2, Section 26 Article VI it states, that “No bill passed by either
House shall become a law unless it has passed three readings on separate days,
and printed copies thereof in its final form have been distributed to its
Members three days before its passage, except
when the President certifies to the necessity of its immediate enactment to
meet a public calamity or emergency. Upon the last reading of a bill, no
amendment thereto shall be allowed, and the vote thereon shall be taken
immediately thereafter, and the yeas and nays entered in the Journal.
And in Section 17, Article XII of the Philippine Constitution, it states
that. “In times of national emergency, when the public interest so requires,
the State may, during the emergency and under reasonable terms prescribed by
it, temporarily take over or direct the operation of any privately-owned public
utility or business affected with public interest.”
This proposed bill seeks to put in place a Bohol-Cebu-Negros Rehabilitation
Commission (BCNRC) that will be responsible for developing, formulating and implementing a Bohol-Cebu-Negros
Rehabilitation and Development Plan at the quickest and soonest possible time.
In Negros Oriental, a group, Centre Humanes et Societas, Inc. through its
network of organizations in the province, has enjoined the forming of a
Standing Conference on Negros Oriental Rehabilitation and Development. This
Standing Conference has formulated the comprehensive plan for rehabilitating Negros
Oriental in the post-earthquake period and the results of their work will be
used in the course of the work of the Commission that is the subject of this
Act. This measure emanates from a series of consultations with various
stakeholders. Confident of their noble intentions
and breadth of knowledge in the matter involved, the immediate enactment of
this proposed measure into law is most fervently enjoined.
FERDINAND R MARCOS JR
The Author: Senator Bongbong Marcos
