Rebuilding Odette-stricken areas

A visitor traveling to Siargao can see from the air a tear-drop shaped island; once upon a time, a patch of green-covered earth.

This was what I saw years ago as the plane descended on the famed island paradise.

Anyone who has seen a glimpse of life in Siargao knows that the country’s surfing capital is full of warmth, zest, and life. Its people are kind, sentient beings, dreamers living their dream of a simple and laid-back, yet meaningful life, surrounded by the sun, sea, and coconuts.

Siargao, nestled in the province of Surigao del Norte, may indeed be shaped like a tear-drop, but it isn’t a place that would make you cry. It’s a happy place really, or at least that’s how I felt when I visited it years ago.

Today, however, Siargao is barely breathing, heavily damaged by Typhoon Odette.

A month after

Typhoon Odette pummeled through 11 out of the country’s 17 regions in the Philippines. Siargao is just one. Cebu, Bohol, Palawan, and Dinagat Islands in the Caraga region were also among those heavily damaged by the typhoon, the strongest to hit the country last year.

A month after the typhoon struck last Dec. 12, 2021, many Odette-stricken areas in the Philippines still desperately need help. The government should not forget this and it needs to do more.

According to a Jan. 19, 2022 report from the World Food Program, hundreds of thousands of people still urgently need food, clean water, shelter, and protection support.

These are the facts:

“A total of eight million people were affected. The Humanitarian Needs and Priorities Plan requires $107.2 million to respond to 530,000 people in two of the most affected regions (Caraga and Eastern Visayas) and only 39 percent of this plan is currently funded.

“More than three quarters of the 198,652 displaced people remain in evacuation centers. The damage includes 1.4 million houses were destroyed or damaged, 514 towns and cities suffered infrastructure damage (i.e., power outages, water and sanitation systems, and damaged roads and bridges, and clinics), and 8,700 locations have water supplies cut off.

“The impact of Odette is comparable to Super Typhoon Haiyan (the strongest typhoon to hit the Philippines), but with a significantly lower death toll at 405 compared to Haiyan’s 6,300 fatalities in 2013,” according to the WFP report, UN’s Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

According to the Center for Disaster Philanthropy (CDP), long-term recovery entails rebuilding of homes and community infrastructure, restoration of electricity, water and sanitation systems, and support for damaged businesses and agriculture.

Affected areas also need support to deal with the health impacts of ongoing and recurrent disasters in the country, combined with additional risks posed by COVID-19.  Several humanitarian responders have tested positive for COVID-19, limiting response activities, the CDP said in its report.

We’re also hearing of typhoon survivors dying because of diarrhea and other illnesses.

Long-term recovery

President Duterte said the government’s response was not late, but people on the ground have said otherwise.

It’s good the private sector has responded, and it must continue with these efforts.

We hear of corporate efforts from San Miguel Corp., the MVP Group, Gokongwei-led companies, Ayala Corp., the Consunji Group, the Aboitiz conglomerate, the Razon Group of Companies, Filinvest Development Corp. and LT Group, among others.

There are also many ongoing efforts initiated by different organizations, and concerned individuals -- from online fund-raisers to virtual yoga-classes.

I recently participated in the yoga fundraiser class organized by Katrina Razon and SaveSiargao, and it was good to see the yoga community coming together to help out.

As individuals, we can also help. Ask your local leaders or check out organizations on your timelines on how you can help.

These initiatives, of course, are not enough and the affected communities still desperately need help today, tomorrow, and in the years to come.

Thus, the Duterte administration needs to speed up efforts for long-term recovery and on a bigger, larger scale, it also needs to seriously address the climate crisis.

It needs to release more funds to rebuild communities, build more resilient housing, provide medicines and medical care, mandate banks, electric cooperatives, and water distributors to prioritize resumption of operations if they haven’t resumed, and create immediate livelihood to help the people get back on their feet.

Long-term reconstruction is equally important. The government must bring together local officials and urban planners to help in the rebuilding process, taking into consideration better land-use for future disasters.

The private sector, which is already taking up the slack for the government, is doing what it can, but it does not have enough resources for long-term rebuilding and recovery, which takes time, years even.

Our authorities must simply do more.

Iris Gonzales’ email address is [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @eyesgonzales. Column archives at eyesgonzales.com