JICA expanding collaboration with Philippines on disaster risk reduction

MANILA, Philippines — The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is eyeing to expand collaboration with the Philippines in the area of disaster risk reduction, citing the two countries’ susceptibility to severe disasters.

JICA president Tanaka Akihiko made the remarks during a courtesy call on President Marcos at Malacañang on Wednesday.

“As a country sharing a similar fate of having monsoon typhoons, the recent experience forced us to continue our collaborative work in disaster risk reduction,” Tanaka told the President.

In response, Marcos said flood control and water management has become a major issue in the country due to the massive flooding brought by the recent storms.

“The water management problem came before, even when I was still in the local government,” Marcos, who had served as governor and representative of Ilocos Norte, said.

Marcos stressed JICA’s important partnership with the Philippines as he highlighted the agency’s aid to the country from infrastructure to “green projects.”

“It started only with infrastructure but now you have also expanded into other areas so we hope we can continue, especially the green projects we have now,” the President said.

Human-caused  climate change

An expert said that the four typhoons experienced by the Philippines this month were due to human-caused climate change.

“These elevated ocean temperatures increased the chance of rapid intensification for each storm, compounding their collective impacts,” Climate Central scientist and meteorologist Daniel Gilford said.

He added that for the first time on record, four named tropical systems were simultaneously active in the Western Pacific Ocean in November.

Tropical cyclones Marce (international name Yinxing), Nika (Toraji), Ofel (Usagi) and Pepito (Man-Yi) simultaneously entered the country in two weeks.

Gilford added that Super Typhoon Pepito was the strongest of the four, which got its strength from higher ocean temperatures boosted by climate change.

“The climate shift index ocean tool, which quantifies the influence of climate change on sea surface temperatures, indicates that these warm ocean temperatures were made up to 40 times more likely by human-caused climate change,” Gilford noted.

He added that the Philippines has been impacted by a total of 16 tropical cyclones or their remnants this season, resulting in deadly landslides and severe flooding due to unprecedented, repeated typhoon activity and oversaturated soils.

In October, the country was also devastated by tropical cyclones Kristine and Leon.

Las Piñas Rep. Camille Villar thanked the House of Representatives for the swift approval of her proposed Free Transportation of Relief Goods Act.

House Bill 10924 requires free freight services for the transport of relief goods to areas hit by natural disasters that are under a state of calamity or have been severely hit by natural disasters such as typhoons or earthquakes.

HB 10924 is a consolidation of bills filed by various representatives, including HB 9345 filed by Villar.

She said allowing freight forwarders, common and private carriers and other companies to provide free logistic services to relief organizations that transport relief goods and donations is a humanitarian act.

Villar also said the grant of free freight services would “strengthen the spirit of bayanihan among Filipinos” and the bill’s approval is timely following the spate of typhoons that swept through the country in just a month’s time. – Bella Cariaso, Jose Rodel Clapano