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By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
With the flooding after Ondoy and the blaming of poor peasants and fisherfolks around the Laguna de Bay, many in Pila, Laguna, fear that the demolition of their homes is now just a matter of time.
By GILL H. BOEHRINGER
By seeking to convince its readers that the effects of Ondoy were “felt equally by rich and poor” and that it was a “great equalizer,” the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the most influential newspaper in the Philippines, was attempting to bolster the view that the Filipino class system had nothing to do with the disaster, and that the lives of all Filipinos are shaped by the same forces of nature, even by fate or by God.
By ARTHUR ALLAD-IW
The Cordillera region incurred most of the damages in Northern Luzon with 309 dead and P1.398 billion of damaged infrastructures and agriculture caused by typhoon Pepeng.
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
"The dams, particularly San Roque Dam, are supposedly designed and used to control floods. However, the floodings these infrastructures have brought us prove that they were not really designed for that function. These dams just bring profit to its proponents and more harm than benefit to the people."
By ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
The construction of dams has always been opposed because of their destructive effects on whole communities. Several anti-dam leaders have been killed as a result. The recent devastation by the dams of Luzon proved that they were right all along.
In the years ahead, the number and magnitude of disasters will increase with colossal human and economic losses. The task of rescue, recovery, relief and rehabilitation will have to fall more and more on the people themselves as they have in fact done in recent years.
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
Days after Ondoy struck, the government declared that it would no longer allow these poor Filipinos to return to their shattered homes.
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
The Citizen's Disaster Response Center urges the passage of the Disaster Risk Reduction Management Bill. But even without this law, trainings in disaster mitigation should be conducted down to the barangay level, it says.
By ARNOLD PADILLA
The challenge that policy makers now face is how to raise the needed resources to fund in a sustainable manner and without placing additional burden on Filipinos the requirements of relief and rehabilitation.
For the Poor, Ondoy Strikes Double Whammy
By CARLOS H. CONDE
A disaster-prone country like the Philippines should by now be a nation of experts on calamities and how to deal with them. But, as Ondoy has shown, Filipinos are almost always caught unawares. And often, the high cost of these calamities are caused not so much by lack of knowledge or resources as by poor governance.
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