Learning lessons at the start of 2022

When tragedies pile up on top of one another, it can be difficult to sift through them and find solutions for each. Typically, we are wired to face the challenge right in front of us and often forget the others that have already passed. This isn’t necessarily bad. It’s survival instinct, after all. However, we can’t prevent recurrences unless we face everything head-on and make long-lasting, impactful changes.

This December was, indeed, full of challenges that bled into 2022. It reminds us that we have a lot of work to do if we want 2022 to be better than the year before. Last December, Vis-Min got severely hit by Typhoon Odette, and I don’t think many of us understood how bad it would be until the aftermath. Whole provinces lost electricity and water for days. Many of our countrymen were left with nothing, but the clothes on their backs.

This isn’t a new story in the Philippines. We get ravaged by storms yearly, and we’ve had our share of super typhoons. Odette joins the ranks of Milenyo and Ondoy in terms of destruction and leaving families homeless and devastated.

Since the onslaught of superstorms like these, we have tried to improve the country’s disaster preparedness and disaster response. After all, we know this isn’t going to be the last time. As climate change continues to impact the environment and even the seasons, super storms are most likely to happen more often, and we need to be prepared.

For Typhoon Odette, the response was even more challenging because it happened at the same time as we were trying to prepare for a potential new variant and still keep our people safe. Disaster relief was coupled with the added complexity of sheltering people but still implementing safety protocols and preventing outbreaks at evacuation centers. This is something we hadn’t anticipated as well.

In general, the challenges we faced at the end of 2021 and the start of 2022 just serve to remind us that we have a long way to go when it comes to being proactive. While our disaster preparedness programs have improved over the years, there is still room to improve more. We know that massive typhoons will be a part of our future. We need to be well equipped to respond when they do.

This means better infrastructure and better resiliency and contingency plans, especially in areas often in the storm’s path. It would also help to have active programs for emergency distribution channels to impacted areas. In the aftermath of Odette, many people wanted to send help, but found it difficult to get donations to the people who needed it the most.

We can’t forget that, to this day, there are still so many in impacted provinces that need help. Just because the news cycle has moved on to the new variant surge doesn’t mean everything is fine in Odette hit areas. There are additional questions on top of survival. While survival and getting through the day is, indeed important, we also have to be mindful of what we need to address in the future.

Livelihoods have been lost completely – farmers and fishermen have lost the only means they had to provide for their families. How can this be addressed – how can this be mitigated in the future? Alongside the infrastructure to withstand the storm, we need better recovery plans. It’s not just enough to survive. How can we help people get back on their feet again? That’s something the government and the communities need to look at closely and hopefully address before the next storm hits.

Alongside disaster preparedness and response, we are amid another COVID-19 surge in the country. Like with typhoons, this is most likely not going to be the last. We all remain hopeful the variants are becoming milder, and hopefully, effective vaccination is helping us get on the road of learning to live with it in the future. But, that time is not yet here, and we still must be extremely mindful of the impact COVID can have on our people and the economy.

Fortunately, business resiliency has significantly been improved in the last year. Companies are more agile and ready to pivot if people are, once again, required to stay home and offices require lowered capacity. We have learned how to work remotely, and while it may not be ideal, it is operational and even quite productive.

Now we have to beef up the national response to COVID surges. DOH has released new isolation rules, and testing should be made more readily available and accessible. Vaccination and boosters must continue to be pushed. The more people that are protected, the better our numbers will be. We can’t afford to be complacent – even if it seems “milder” this time around.

As the saying goes – you can never be too prepared. This is true for so many different aspects of life and something we need to apply to every part of how we live. If we are better prepared as a country and individual communities, rising up after hard times will be faster and more efficient. Let’s not waste the lessons we are learning and be better prepared in the face of adversity.