The past several months were tough—and we don’t mean in politics.
The El Niño phenomenon wrought so much suffering on millions of Filipinos. More than the punishing heat that people experienced, the drought brought unimaginable damage on the livelihood of our already beaten farmers. It heightened the tragic irony of food producers not having anything to eat.
With the coming of the rainy season comes not so much relief but yet more reasons to worry.
Pagasa this week set up a “La Niña Watch” to remind people to prepare for the opposite of drought, which may be equally damaging to lives and livelihood of Filipinos especially those in vulnerable areas.
We know this too well already because we experience it year after year, although perhaps more intensely and devastatingly in recent ones. The changing climate has the capacity to brew stronger and more frequent weather patterns. Such, experts say, is the “new normal.”
The looming shift in the weather coincides with the transition from an old to a new administration. Of the old, we have seen how disaster risk reduction and management has become a buzzword out of firsthand experience: the national and local governments as well as communities have established DRRM practices, but in varying degrees, often depending on the leaders’ priorities.
The incoming administration has drafted an agenda that includes improving the country’s viability as a destination for long-term investment. Ultimately, the objective is to make nominal income growth inclusive as well, so that more Filipinos can observe some improvement in their economic lives and have more options for their children.
This, however, would be meaningless if modest gains are washed away by a single episode of typhoon and flooding, setting back communities by years, if not decades.
The new administration should ensure local governments and communities across the country are equally resilient in the face of disaster in whatever form. Especially so in emergencies, nobody should be left behind.