EDITORIAL - Building for resilience

The remains of six persons were dug up behind a national high school in Tacloban as the city prepared to mark two years since the city was devastated by Super Typhoon Yolanda.

Local officials believe the remains were those of victims of the deadliest typhoon to hit the country. The death toll had soared past 6,000 and was still climbing when the national government decided to stop the official body count, despite protests from local officials who said many more were buried in the rubble and underneath ships that smashed ashore at the height of the typhoon.

Yolanda turned much of Eastern Visayas into a wasteland. Homes, offices, schools and public buildings were blown away. Plantations were flattened and livelihoods wiped out.

Even as the government responded to the destruction in a fumbling way, there was already talk of “building back better,” of building for disaster resilience. Two years later, simple building – and not even for the better – is reportedly moving slowly in areas as basic as permanent shelters.

Experts had warned that rebuilding could take years, pointing to the slow recovery of earthquake-ravaged Haiti. In many aspects, however, the Philippines has much better capacity than Haiti, so Eastern Visayas should be recovering at a brisker pace.

The anniversary of the deadliest typhoon to hit the country can be marked by a review of efforts to make communities disaster resilient, and not just in the Yolanda-hit areas. The entire archipelago is vulnerable. Manila has been hit by a destructive storm surge from Manila Bay. Tacloban, which faces a secluded bay, thought it was protected from the brunt of typhoons.

The post-Yolanda rehabilitation is also exposing mistakes that must be corrected and avoided in future disaster responses. Recently, government auditors pointed to the poor utilization of huge amounts of foreign and local donations meant for typhoon victims. The problem has been blamed on complicated requirements and tedious processes for filing assistance claims. Even clearing of rubble has been slowed down by laws and rules that make sense under normal circumstances, but must have mechanisms for revision during times of disaster.

Yolanda showed the importance of preparedness. That lesson must not be wasted. Many communities in this archipelago are exceptionally vulnerable to storm surges. Efforts to improve their resilience must be stepped up long before disaster strikes.