The Hyogo Framework for Action on Disaster Reduction

With all the resources the United Nations wields, there will always be issues on whether its issuances, promulgations and declarations of various names and types meet with the compliance of its member states on a ratio of at least 1:50. However, the more realistic figure may be 1:150 or higher. That for every 150 issuances, only one out of 150 member countries religiously abides by its issuances must be painful to admit.

But this does not harm the United Nations in any way, for whether the members act like delinquents, the UN shall continue to exist as long as the members keep paying their dues.

About two years from this date, the latest framework on disaster risk reduction made by the UN in a grand event called Second United Nations World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, will expire. It has to give way to a so-called successor framework.

At that point, the UN will have to come up with the successor framework, hopefully containing new material that will detail how to mitigate risks of calamities like Yolanda. The Third United Nations World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction to replace the Hyogo Framework for Action for Disaster Risk Reduction, will be held in Sendai, Japan, several prefectures away from where the predecessor Hyogo Framework was crafted.

If only for the occurrence of the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the second and now the third World Conference is being in the same country one more time. However, following what transpired in that country during the earthquake-tsunami and in the Philippines, during and in the aftermath of Yolanda, it can be said that the framework promulgated at the Hyogo Prefecture conference is more or less dead, killed by its obsolescence.

This Hyogo framework died before its successor was born. Thus again, we make this call, prior to or coinciding with the Sendai conference, that the United Nations considers pushing through with our strongly advocated focused disaster and environmental hazards summit.

Why the need to host a focused disasters and environment hazards mapping conference.

The question of whether the various United Nations platforms for disaster risk reduction has done anything to prevent even at least half, or better, more than 50% of the casualties of recent disasters can only be answered in the negative. More > >

The Conversation

November 9, 2013. It appeared to be a conversation limited to the parties concerned, instead of a publicly significant briefing that will dictate the prospects of life, valuables, estates and socio-psychological welfare of a lot of citizens.

His Excellency Simeon Benigno Cojuangco Aquino the 3rd was talking to General Emmanuel T Bautista, the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (CSAFP) as the government underlings of member agencies of the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (NDRRMC) were holding a press conference. No bigwigs from member agencies were ever present from start to finish, except the lowly underlings reporting: "HERE ARE OUR PREPARATIONS, WE ARE AT STATE OF READINESS SIR!"

Thank God, for the brave and confident assertion of General ET Bautista, the President became very relaxed for so many days thereafter. "There are communications lines to Leyte, Sir!" Thank God for that. That was the statement upon where a lot of lives and so many other expensive things had hang upon.

This small statement was relayed to the people at the NDRRMC Press Briefing and to all the people in the public who were watching this press conference.

While everything was being aired on national media in real time, the chief briefer, presiding officer Department of National Defense Undersecretary Edmundo del Rosario, at the Press Conference at NDRRMC instructed the key people immediately upon receipt of the report of CSAFP's statement to the President at that conference to "check if there is a long line (millitary communication lines) to Tacloban." There are of course no military communication lines to Tacloban. Since the 1990s or earlier, the Department of National Defense, has been calling to Tacloban using the Cebu long lines, and from there the Cebu military long lines operator will just dial the Tacloban / Leyte Operator who will then patch the call to desired target phone number in Tacloban or other reachable part of Leyte.

Because there are no communication lines, a snap decision was made: Set up the communications lines! Damn it! The President Simeon Benigno knows there are communication lines! That there is contact with Tacloban. While the execution of that very quick decision was being made, this was followed by the post in the AFP facebook.com account that:

AFP Opens Communication Cells in Tacloban, Mactan, and Roxas City 

November 10, 2013 at 5:57pm Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City—To address shortages in communication facilities following the devastation caused by Super Typhoon Yolanda, the Armed Forces of the Philippines deployed communications systems in three cities in Visayas today, November 9. A communication cell was earlier established in Tacloban City Police Station and the Base Ops, Villamore Air Base to augment communication requirements for Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Response operations. Two more in Roxas City, Capiz and Mactan City, Cebu are on their way to monitor rescue and relief efforts. Aerial recon and damage assessment is alsoon-going over Cebu, Panay Island, and Tacloban. Earlier, two C-130 aircraft transported a crisis action team, a medical team, and power generators to Bohol along with 12,000lbs of assorted relief goods. The AFP will continue to assist the NDRRMC in command post operations particularly in restoring command and control and through logistics and communications assistance. AFP Chief of Staff General Emmanuel T Bautista gave his orders to the Central Command and Southern Luzon Command to prioritize disaster response efforts and make available all of its air and naval assets for immediate assessment of damage; rescue, and transport operations. He also ordered other Area Commanders and their DRTUs to support Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Response (HADR) efforts when requested. Helicopters are already deployed for relief transport, rescue, and damage assessment operations. (Released Saturday, November 9, 2013)Prepared by Public Affairs Office, AFP

November 10, 2013. In a matter of hours following the receipt of that statement, after Yolanda devastated everything in Leyte and many other places, people were killing each other in Leyte. Tens of thousands were dead, a large number littering the streets. Those in evacuation centers themselves who were supposed to be in safer places, free from the onslaught of the storm and storm surges, unfortunately were close to the sea. Within the walls of the concrete evacuation centers, they perished. While you do not need to bring people to unsafe regions when impending calamity is at hand, these people were evacuated from danger zones to possibly more dangerous evacuation centers where they had to die out of the insensitivity of others.

It will be recalled that this site has been battling with the UNISDR world wide campaign to promote community resiliency during disaster. This advocacy has been repeatedly asking for policy regime change for re-engineering approaches to disaster prevention. calling also for intelligent relocation, in the midst of asking people to strengthen their resiliency to calamities. Relocation to safe areas, when the path of disaster lies within their habitats so as to avoid unnecessary deaths, loss of property, crops, valuables to calamities that are long foretold beforehand.

This advocacy has also been egging the government to modernize. The latest in the relentless efforts are the proposals to the Chief Philippine National Police (PNP) to finally set up the long-advocated integrated comm center at its real estate in Bicutan, Taguig City. Failing to get a really warm response from Chief PNP and his lieutenants, except for the grant of a brief conference of small time underlings at the Directorate for Information, Communication and Technology Management briefing room the advocacy group attacked the Commission on Elections and proposed the setting up of the comm center anew.

The comm center idea has been floated as early as during the time of the late President Corazon Aquino; a modernized satellite, data communications facility was strongly pushed at the time. It was repeated during the presidency of Fidel Valdez Ramos, with Joseph Ejercito Estrada and then when Gloria Macapagal Arroyo came to power. Upon sitting as president, Simeon Benigno the 3rd was also given the same proposal. Up to now, the only communication that appears to be very expensive and relevant to this country's communications specialists is the demeanor of Napoles and the sins of Senators Enrile, Revilla and Estrada.

The PNP attitude is that they are building their own integrated system. We were actually told that already before the briefing in January-February 2013 of this year. That is the reason why we jumped from proposing a small Dial 117 for Police Assistance system to the integrated one because Chief PNP wanted a seamless, all-in-one integrated system.

The Comelec attitude on the other hand, is, well, we don't know that as yet. Perhaps the Chairman of the Comelec has been trying to get the approval of Simeon Benigno the 3rd but keeps getting bumped off on this type of agenda that is meaningless to the powers-that-be.

Resulting from this lack of a communication line that the CSAFP had confidently reported to Simeon Benigno the 3rd to be present, is the reported "Worst Disaster to hit PH"-Inquirer. Facebook and other social sites reported tens of thousands dead in Tacloban City Philippines alone.

November 11, 2013. Extreme hunger begets anarchy. Anarchy spawns murder, killings, more deaths and loss. Simeon Benigno the 3rd has been mulling declaring a "state of emergency". But he should have done that eons ago. In the Zamboanga Siege, Simeon Benigno 3rd ruled out that declaration. ABS CBN reports that he might. However he dilly-dallied on the Tacloban declaration and may not after all make that call. He even walked out of the disaster briefing meeting. Simeon Benigno 3rd is frustrated, the report says. To someone at the NDRRMC meeting who asked for placing the area under a state of emergency, the 3rd told him in reply, "But you did not died, right?" And ABS-CBN reported that the presidential guards were ready to arrest the questioner, who probably was a private sector member of the NDRRM Council or an observer invited to the same meeting.

Lest there be future misconceptions, the chief of staff of the Philippine armed forces, whoever he might be, should no longer make useless utterances to the Commander in Chief, frustrated or not, this regime or in the succeeding administrations.

This is all sad and was simply caused by a lack and failure of communication. There is another storm coming. It is hoped that it won't be as powerful as Yolanda. But at the end of it, there must be no more stalling on the setting up of a really decent, integrated comm system. That will spell survival for many and relieve the country of the stress of people walking like zombies on the streets for lack of food and shelter, killing looters who are out of a mere piece of food that can assuage days-long hunger and so many manifestations of anarchy, widespread psychological trauma, breakdown of law and order and suffering of great social loss.

In Aklan, in Capiz, in Samar - hundreds dead thousands missing, as well as still so many areas in the country, help is sorely awaited. It is dearly hoped that aid will come and comm lines will be secured - even if Mr. Manuel V. Pangilinan has to loan the government under emergency circumstances thousands of satellite phone units. After all, a large number of our good friends in the New People's Army including my own cousins in Leyte-Cebu have been happily reporting successful communications, internet browsing, facebooking, tumblring, piniting, blogging, wordpressing, using the Smart ACES Satellite mobile! Superb service! our NPA relatives say. CSAFP should be ashamed.

hazmapping.com: Modernization of Phivolcs

The Phivolcs in action
Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology is direly in need of sensing equipment upgrade and modernization of its systems and technologies. Photo credit: Reuters

In sympathy with the people of Bohol, Cebu, Leyte, Samar, among many others that were affected by the recent Killer Earthquake, we are posting this call by the Disaster, Hazards Mapping Program Group (Hazmapping).

This is also in future sympathy with the people of Metro Manila who will be severely affected by a major 7 to 8 magnitude earthquake that was predicted by PHIVOLCs and other experts and disseminated by media very recently.

We are posting the article below to prompt the Philippine Government key persons to stop wrangling about how much they themselves had stolen from the National Treasury. That is enough for now. There are more significant issues to attend to.

We are also calling upon the United Nations and its disaster risk reduction arm, the UNISDR to sympathize with us in this campaign to prod the Philippine national government to finally authorize the release of the funds for the modernization of PHIVOLCS. It is true that both the government and the UN have more sensible and important things to do, but it will not take much time to make the final decision to approve and bring over the funds for PHIVOLCs upgrade-modernization to that agency.

These funds have been awaited for over a very long, long time. A lot of disasters have visited the Philippines. But the greatest disaster is in the form of a major 9-10 magnitude earthquake that will cause a massive tsunami that will drown millions of people and their properties all over the coastal areas of the Philippines. Considering that the country has 7,107 islands with 36,289 kilometers of coastline, and 33% of the country are face the ocean and seas, the extent of the loss of life and property will be horrendous.

If the government decision makers are too stupid enough not to consider this as consequential, it is time for the country to rethink its directions and replace the majority of these people at the top as soon as humanly possible.

There is no recourse but to help PHIVOLCS, along with other agencies like NAMRIA, the DOTC's Coast Guard, DND and DILG's uniformed services that all help in search, rescue and recovery and if that cannot be done, then change needs to happen to create more dynamic and healthy governance in this forsaken part of the world.

Article Source: http://www.hazmapping.com

From over 40 casualties, the death toll has risen to nearly 100 in the Carmen, Bohol Province-Cebu City earthquake. At that figure, the Carmen-Cebu tremor can qualify as a Killer Quake. Cebu and nearby areas has to be declared to be in a state of calamity. There are limited manuevers that aircraft can make at the Cebu airport due to the cracking and opening up of the airport's runways.

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."

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, Phivolcs 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.

Talking with sectors in Davao

Our corporate fellows wrote this article about the Davao trip and dialogues:

Davao: Development imperatives

Like the determination of the people of Fukushima and Sendai, Japan to transfer habitat centers from low-lying areas to higher ground, this should be the resolve of government in Davao, Cagayan de Oro, Iligan City and other areas severely hit by flash flood: immediate and comprehensive relocation. We don't care at all if the United Nations is promoting resilient communities. God bless all those hardworking people at the U.N. but to hell with that campaign of building resilient communities. We are amazed at what that very good Korean Secretary General is actually doing at his office in the U.N.. More of this item here.