Turning Disasters into Opportunities The opinion of the inquirer

Disasters have a negative connotation because they involve loss, death, turmoil and destruction. We connect them with images of destruction and devastation, homes buried deep during the landslide, or the terrifying people shaken by an earthquake. Many people think that disasters are “God’s deeds” or something beyond our control.

Herein lies the problem. If people have no control over disasters, we government leaders and ourselves can evade responsibility. Most importantly, it removes any possibility of improvement and learning from the disaster.

Different perspective. Some consensus in the scientific community indicates that disasters are manmade. They are man-made. Disasters occur when risks interact with weak human activities and a reduced ability to withstand shocks in the system. Hurricanes are not necessarily disasters when they occur in the central Pacific Ocean without causing any human or economic losses. It only becomes a disaster when the poorly planned and managed sewage system is flooded with flood water and causes a loss of livelihood, injury or death to people. Thus, there is no such thing as a natural disaster.

This line of thinking is important, because it means that individuals and their governments, within the limits of their authority, have the power to prevent or reduce disaster risk. This perspective means that there can be opportunities after a disaster.

History provides ample cases. The Federal Emergency Management Agency was established after the disasters of the 1970s in the United States. The Build Back Better concept emerged after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami devastation. In the Philippines, Hurricane “Ondoy” provided a strong impetus to the enactment of Republic Act 10121 or the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act in the country.

Build back better. COVID-19 challenges many of our assumptions about disasters. The country is often hit by hurricanes that last for a few days. This epidemic is different because it has been ravaging for months. While hurricanes call for major political transformations after a disaster, this long pandemic requires major policy changes to occur during the disaster. Leaders who follow a reactive, short-term approach mostly based on dirt are caught unprepared for a pandemic that requires critical and well-thought-out policy decisions. Attributing failure to manage this crisis to nature or becoming divine is more important.

While our country has strengthened its response mechanisms to meteorological disasters and hydrometeorology, there is less interest in epidemics. This explains why both the public and private sectors have had difficulty dealing with COVID-19.

Lots of lessons from COVID-19 will appear in the future, as leaders contemplate its implications and the emergence of more scientific studies. However, there are many lessons that can be learned now. First, state laws and policies must have mechanisms to alleviate and manage epidemics. The health system plays a very important role in the national epidemic strategy and deserves support in funding, regulatory reforms and human resources. Second, emergency plans in the private sector must be prepared not only for short-term unrest but also for the long-term to prevent the loss of livelihoods of millions of people. Third, disaster education is crucial not only in making people more prepared, but also for them to demand better leadership during disasters. These lessons are crucial for the Philippines to rebuild better systems and turn the COVID-19 pandemic into an opportunity.

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Ron Jay B. Dangkalan is an assistant professor in the Department of Social Development Services, College of Human Ecology, UPLB, and a specialist at the Water Interdisciplinary Center.

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