JOMAR S.

TRINIDAD

Haven: A Sanctuary of Hope for Every Filipino

In the wake of a natural disaster, countries need to immediately access funds to rebuild damaged infrastructure and
re-establish critical government services, but the immediate aftermath of a disaster is often when financial liquidity
constraints are at the highest. The time gap between the occurrence of a natural disaster and access to funding can
be costly, exacerbating poverty through impacts on health, mobility, and access to education.

The following activities are the programs that the government is trying to impose and establish to further lessen the
disasters that the country is facing. And by these activities I do believe that the Philippines will become a safer haven
to its citizens.

1. MITIGATION
It is the lessening or limitation of the adverse impacts of hazards and related disasters. For instance, constructing
flood defenses, planting trees to stabilize slopes and implementing strict land use and building construction codes.

Government to mitigate future calamities through environmental approach.

Bamboo to help boost disaster mitigation in the Philippines.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is promoting bamboo-planting as a climate change
and disaster mitigation strategy. Bamboo not only thrives in the country and is among the government’s priority
reforestation species but this grass is also good in sequestering or absorbing carbon dioxide (CO2) which is among
greenhouse gases (GHGs) driving climate change. It’s not just economics that makes bamboo attractive for
reforestation, bamboo is also ideal for climate change mitigation

According to DENR’s Ecosystems Research and Development Bureau (ERDB), the Bamboo Plantation Development
Project of the expanded National Greening Program (NGP) aims to use bamboo in rehabilitating – from 2017 to 2022
– one million hectares of denuded uplands inside the country’s critical watersheds. Such rehabilitation targets to
help alleviate poverty while promoting food security, environmental stability, biodiversity conservation and climate
change mitigation.

The areas to be developed and rehabilitated include critical watersheds, marginal areas, creek lines, riverbanks and
areas prone to erosion in order to improve and enhance the natural defenses and resilience of those areas and its
adjacent sites against the impacts of climate change. Planting bamboo will help prevent river banks there from
eroding and will also used as a protection against soil erosion.

The environment is the one that will benefit a lot from this program. Because as we view this in a holistic approach,
we are hitting two birds with one stone. Because, while we are preserving the environment, we are also creating a
solution for incoming disasters that might happen.

2. PREPAREDNESS
The knowledge and capacities of governments, professional response and recovery organizations, communities and
individuals to effectively anticipate, respond to, and recover from the impacts of likely, imminent or current hazard
events or conditions. For instance, installing early warning systems, identifying evacuation routes and preparing
emergency supplies.
The government using technology as an instrument to help and prepare the citizens for disasters.
Located in the Pacific typhoon belt, the Philippines experiences many forms of disasters. Alongside typhoons,
earthquakes, floods, volcanic eruptions and landslides are common, causing much suffering and millions of dollars of
damage.
In response to these threats, the United Nations Development Programme in the Philippines and the Australian
government have launched a disaster preparedness initiative named Shield – the Strengthening Institutions and
Empowering Localities against Disasters and Climate Change Program.
Shield’s aim is to facilitate work with local governments on building resilience against natural hazards and climate
change.One of the projects that Shield supports is GeoRiskPh, a multi-agency government initiative led by the
Department of Science and Technology that serves as a centralized database to help government and the public
anticipate and prepare for natural disasters.
The said agency developed a web and mobile application that collates hazard, exposure, vulnerability, and coping
capacity data from across the country. GeoMapperPH was developed by various government agencies led by the
Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS).

Built around a geographic information system (GIS) core, it aids in disaster prevention and mitigation by tapping the
databases of at least 53 municipal governments, six national government agencies, and three NGOs. The system can
generate automatic identification of natural hazard susceptibility. This enables local officials to see what percentage
of the population would be exposed to ground shaking, severe wind, or flooding in any given municipality.

In terms of disaster preparedness, local governments can use GeoMapperPH to create evacuation routes, develop
evacuation centers, and situate public facilities far from danger-prone areas. The GIS-based tool, known as
“GeoMapperPH: Situation Data Mapper,” is especially critical during the onslaught of a natural disaster. It monitors
the situation on the ground during calamities and feeds an awareness information dashboard that can be used for a
more accurate impact assessment in a specified area.

By the use of the said innovation, the local and national government can do their jobs effectively, easier, and faster.
And we could say that this will benefit the citizens and the community as a whole because it sustains and creates a
plan for an incoming disaster.

3. TRANSFER

The process of formally or informally shifting the financial consequences of particular risks from one party to another
whereby a household, community, enterprise or state authority will obtain resources from the other party after a
disaster occurs, in exchange for ongoing or compensatory social or financial benefits provided to that other party.
For instance, insurance.

Government raising a fund-raising activity for future needs.

In countries regularly exposed to natural disasters, including health-related events, a Development Policy Loan with
a Catastrophe Deferred Drawdown Option (Cat DDO) can provide expedient financing following a disaster. A Cat
DDO is a contingent financing line that provides immediate liquidity to countries to address shocks related to natural
disasters and health-related events. It serves as early financing while funds from other sources such as bilateral aid
or reconstruction loans are being mobilized.

On November 17, 2021, the World Bank approved the Fourth Disaster Risk Management Development Policy Loan
with a Catastrophe-Deferred Drawdown Option (CAT-DDO 4) of $500 million for the Government of Philippines. This
new line of credit is helping strengthen the Philippines’ institutional and financial capacity to manage risks from
climate change, natural disasters, and disease outbreaks.

n addition to providing immediate liquidity in the aftermath of severe disasters, the Cat DDOs have, more
importantly, provided access to technical support from the World Bank in strengthening overall DRM policy reforms
and developing institutional capacity to implement the reforms at the national and local levels. Through the Third
Cat DDO, the “Ready to Rebuild (R2R): Disaster Rehabilitation and Recovery Program” was developed and
launched, with support from the technical assistance (TA) grant, “Building a Culture of Disaster Preparedness at the
Local Level”, provided through the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery and Japan-World Bank
Program for Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Management in Developing Countries.

The R2R training program has been providing manuals, guidance, and training sessions to assist the country’s Local
Government Units (LGUs) in developing Local Disaster Rehabilitation and Recovery Plans based on the national
Disaster Rehabilitation and Recovery Planning Guide, developed by the Government of Philippines with technical
support from the World Bank. The people from the marginalized part of the society are the one that is highlighted
from this program.