CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Disaster remains one of the main challenges facing the nations of the developing world.

It does not only cause high mortality and suffering, it also damages local economies that are in

the process of formation and thwarts development achievements. [1] Philippines is one of the

countries around the world who often experience disasters such as earthquake, volcanic

eruption, typhoon, tsunami, drought, and flooding among others. Since 1990, the Philippines

have been affected by 565 natural disaster events that have claimed the lives of nearly 70,000

Filipinos and caused an estimated P 1.2 trillion in damages. [2] The country is highly exposed to

natural hazards because it lies along the Pacific Typhoon Belt and is within the Pacific Ring of

Fire. The risk is compounded by uncontrolled settlement in hazard-prone areas, high poverty

rate, failure to implement building codes and construction standards, and the degradation of

forests and coastal resources, among others. [3]

Natural disasters can happen at any time, everyone should be prepared to handle it

safely and effectively. The Philippines’ first institutionalized governmental response to disaster

response and preparedness came during the Marcos era. Through Presidential Decree 1566,

the National Disaster Coordinating Council under the president’s office was established as the

highest policymaking body in responding to natural disasters. Fast forward two decades and

decentralization movements had taken over the country. In 1991, the duties of disaster

management and preparedness fell on the autonomous Local Governance Units, the lowest

level of government in the Philippines. Though the National Disaster Coordinating Council was

still an office under the president, its powers were severely diminished in the years following the

decentralization movement. It wasn’t until 2009, almost four decades after the Marcos-era

decree, that the National Disaster Coordinating Council was finally updated and replaced by

Republic Act 10121, or the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act. And
through a consortium of disaster management plans, the NDRRMC mentioned above was born.

[4]

Flood is the most frequently experienced phenomenon in the country due to the

monsoon rains and typhoons. The country experiences about 20 typhoons (more or less) per

year. Monsoon rain affects the weather system of the country for about six months or half of the

year. This causes flooding in many parts of the country. Excessive rainfall can cause urban

flooding as well as breach in river dikes or levees which can cause flooding to low lying towns

and villages. Damage to property, agriculture, as well as loss of lives may happen during floods.

The Philippines experienced several disasters related to flooding which caused many

deaths and damage to property in the last decade, because of frequent visit of mild to strong

typhoons that brought heavy rain in different provinces in the country that triggered floods in

urban and rural areas which greatly affects the economy, environment and the people. During

floods most of the main roads are not accessible, bridges are blocked, farmers are greatly

affected; hundreds and thousands of crops are destroyed and wasted even before the harvest

season, most houses in the Philippines are bungalow so the flood water can easily enter

resident's homes destroying hard earned furniture and belongings. The after math is even

worse because of the damage left by the disaster.

Storms most frequently make landfall on the islands of Eastern Visayas, Bicol region, and

Northern Luzon so with that being said, the Municipality of Manaoag which belongs to the

country's region I, also had some shares when it comes to flooding during and after typhoons.

The barangays within Manaoag that are consistently affected by flood are Inamotan, Baguinay,

and Matulong. Furthermore, the said municipality was chosen as the research locale for this

study for the reason that despite of the damages of houses and some infrastructures, there

were no recorded casualties. This somehow entails how its local government prepared for

typhoons. The researchers believe that by choosing the municipality of Manaoag as the locale

of the study, it may ameliorate the disaster preparedness of the focused community and other
municipalities. Furthermore, choosing Manaoag may also encourage other researchers in

choosing research locales which are not given much attention and thus improve their disaster

preparedness.

Statement of the Problem

The objective of this study is to identify the different perceptions of Manaoageños about

Disaster-Preparedness of the Municipality.

Specifically, the study sought answers to the following problems:

• What are the problems encountered in the implementation of Flood Disaster Risk

Management-Disaster Risk Reduction program in Manaoag in terms of:

• Training and equipping of the health workers

• Providing warnings of emergencies

• What are the knowledge of Manaoageños with regards to Disaster Preparedness in

terms of:

• Anti-flood structures

• Evacuation Areas

• Safety Precautions before, during and after a typhoon

• What are the Flood Disaster Risk Management- Disaster Risk Reduction (DRM-DRR)

program needs in terms of:

• Program objectives

• Program resources

• Staff

• physical resources

• budgetary allocation

• Program activities,

• prevention and mitigation,

• emergency preparedness and risk reduction,

 • emergency response, and

• rehabilitation and recovery

Theoretical Framework

This study is anchored in the Modern Disaster Theory by which, according to Jim Chen,

treats Disaster Law as the best portfolio of legal rules (2011:1121). According to the Disaster

Law and Policy, at first glance, disaster law seems to be nothing but a collection of legal rules

that happen to come into play when communities have suffered severe physical damage, but at

a deeper level, it is about assembling the best portfolio of legal rules to deal with catastrophic

risks – a portfolio that includes mitigation, emergency response, compensation and insurance,

and rebuilding strategies (2010:n.p.). It is the mission of disaster law to increase the

preparedness of all social institutions, including official and non-governmental actors, to

anticipate sudden, calamitous events, and to bring the optimal portfolio of legal rules to bear

when such events occur (Chen, 2011:1123). Moreover, optimal legal preparedness for disaster

consists of identifying, adopting and maintaining that portfolio of rules at the frontier of efficient

governance (Chen, 2011:1121). The author also suggested that “disaster law may have an even

greater role to play in guiding legal decisions on prevention, emergency response, mitigation,

risk-spreading, compensation, and reconstruction in the face of disaster. Sharpening these tools

enhances the portfolio of rules that comprise disaster law” (Chen, 2010:1123)

According to NDRRMP (2011:25), the fourth objective of disaster preparedness states:

“to develop and implement comprehensive national and local disaster preparedness policies,

plans and systems”. This highlights the importance of the presence of a timely disaster

preparedness plan in order to ensure the preparedness of a communities in the event of a

disaster. Moreover, disaster preparedness plan has two types (NDRRMP, 2011:43). One is

focused on the various activities that need to be done to ensure proper and timely disaster
response operations, and the other is focused on the safety of the people and the plans to

increase their level of awareness and preparedness in case disaster happen.

This study also proposes a three-dimensional notion in the field of politics that supports

in carrying out disaster preparedness. The concept of decentralization, policy process, and

political participation and political culture reflects the dynamics of state and non-state actors

concerning the preparedness of a local community such as Manaoag, Pangasinan.

Decentralization is defined as “the expansion of local autonomy through the transfer of powers

and responsibilities away from national bodies” (Heywood, 2007). Decentralization entails that

the “state is the ultimate hierarchical institution which consolidates all other hierarchical

institutions” (Burchill, et. al.,2005). The study would look into the mechanism of a decentralized

country like the Philippines, in the process of taking the policy of disaster preparedness

beginning from the national level, regional level and finally into the local level where the study is

focused, based on the presence of a disaster preparedness plan in Manaoag, Pangasinan.

According to Andrew Heywood (2007), “policy process relates to the mechanisms

through which public (government) policies are made”. The National Disaster Risk Reduction

and Management Plan, effective by the year 2011 up to 2028, is embedded by a legalized

framework (Republic Act 10121) in the Philippines built to address disaster problems in the

country. It is a policy since it is a formal decision made by the government and actions on

disaster preparedness will be initiated by the Department of Interior and Local Government.

Policy process is carried out through policy initiation, policy formulation, policy implementation

and policy evaluation. These steps serves as pillars in determining the outcome of the action of

the government, more importantly in the context of the Municipality of Manaoag, Pangasinan in

terms disaster preparedness.

 On the other hand, coordination between the civil society and the government is an

essential factor in the operation of the legalized framework. Through decentralization, the

people participates in the execution of policies together with Non-government Organizations

(NGOs). Political participation refers to all the actions of individuals in a community. The

researchers believe that political participation would ease the implementation of inculcating

knowledge and capabilities of people in the community in relation to disaster preparedness. In

this study, political culture in the locality is considered in order to find out how policies are

carried out with respect to the attitudes of the people in the community. Almond and Verba,

enumerated three types of political culture: participant political culture wherein people pay close

attention to politics, subject political culture wherein people have cognitive knowledge about the

political system but remain passive, and parochial political culture wherein people feel the

absence of a sense of citizenship and they have no desire or the ability to participate in politics.

Burchill, et. al. (2005) stresses decentralization and claims that “it stems from a sense that while

global environmental and social/economic problems operate on global scale, they can be

successfully responded to only by breaking down the global power structures which generate

them through local action and the construction of smaller-scale political communities and

selfreliant economies.” Moreover, an argument in green politics stems from the notion that

“smallscale communities would be too parochial and potentially self- interested to provide

atmospheres conducive to cross community cooperation” (Burchill, et. al.,2005). The study will

provide the mechanisms of the policy process in relation to the decentralization of government

and how public participation affects the flow and execution of the policy. The three indicators

(policy process, decentralization, and political participation and political culture) would help

determine the conditions of the disaster preparedness with the use of a plan in Manaoag,

Pangasinan.
Definition of Terms

Decentralization – Transfer of decision making power and assignment of accountability and

responsibility for results. It is accompanied by delegation of commensurate authority to

individuals or units at all levels of an organization even those far removed from headquarters or

other centers of power.

Something

MDRRMC–Manaoag Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council that aims to provide

integrated direction and control at the City level in order that manpower, material, monitoring,

and other necessary resources will be made available and responsive to the disaster and

calamities which may occur in the locality.

Mitigation – the effort to reduce loss of lifeand property by lessening the impact of disasters. In

order for mitigation to be effective we need to take action now—before the next disaster—to

reduce human and financial consequences later (analyzing risk, reducing risk, and insuring

against risk).

Perception - refers to the way sensory information is organized, interpreted, and consciously

experienced. Perception involves both bottom-up and top-down processing

Thwarts – to stop something from happening or someone from doing

References

[1] F. Al-Nammari, M. Alzaghal, Towards local disaster risk reduction in developing countries:

Challenges from Jordan, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 12 (2015) 34-41.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2014.11.005.

[2] Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recover, https://www.gfdrr.org/philippines

[3] UNICEF Philippines. Disaster Risk Reduction.

http://www.unicef.org/philippines/risk_8956.html#.VFX2sfnF-s0, 2014 (accessed 25.11.16)

[4]Lin L., Preparing for Disaster in the Philippines, https://thediplomat.com/2017/11/preparing-

for-disaster-in-the-philippines/