By Rey M. Nasol
LEGAZPI CITY -- The proposed reconstruction commission, a so-called "bypass route" that will quicken fund sourcing and hasten the country's coping mechanism against the effects of calamities, has been signed into an executive order by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, said Joey Salceda, economic adviser to Ms. Arroyo and current Albay Governor, on Tuesday.
Salceda proposed the creation of a special commission for Philippine reconstruction after Tropical Storm "Ondoy" and Typhoon "Pepeng" ravaged the central part of the country and the northern Luzon areas barely two weeks ago.
"Given the impact of the global crisis on our fiscal capacity versus the magnitude of calamity impact, the Philippines should seek fresh aid amounting to $1 billion to fund reconstruction," he said.
The special public-private reconstruction commission composed of representatives from the government, church, big business and civil society should be constituted by the government to spearhead the effort, he added.
Salceda explained that the special commission will operate like the original Coordinating Council for the Philippine Assistance Plan headed by businessman Roberto Villanueva of Atlantic Gulf Philippines Inc.
The CCPAP has since evolved into the Coordinating Council for Private Sector Participation which operates the BOT Center under DTI.
The Office of Civil Defense and the National Economic and Development Authority will form the secretariat, whose key task is to raise funds especially grants, prioritize programs and oversee implementation, is spelled out in the proposal.
Its members shall be appointed by the President but it will be headed by a dominant business leader with Social Welfare Secretary Esperanza Cabral and Cardinal Rosales as co-chairpersons and the secretaries of departments and heads of business groups and nongovernment organization as members.
The OCD and NEDA will form the secretariat and will also serve as a clearing house for international assistance implemented by the donors themselves using the cluster approach.
Breakdown of the P46 billion is as follows: relocation, P20 billion; infrastructure rehabilitation, P21 billion; and livelihood and agriculture, P5 billion.
The P46 billion will be allocated for typhoon victims, broken down as follows: P27 billion for Ondoy; P12 billion for Pepeng; and P7 billion for Typhoon "Frank" which hit Romblon and Visayan provinces in June 2008.
Ondoy's impact was on infrastructure while "Pepeng" devastated swaths of agricultural land.
Both calamities, however, surfaced a policy need for relocation for the affected population. In the case of Pepeng, it is the need to relocate those vulnerable to landslides while in Ondoy's case, there is the need to resettle informal settlers living beside riverbanks and lakeshores at risk to flooding.
The Reconstruction Commission should request the United Nations and the World Bank to coordinate an international pledging session either in Spain or Japan possibly in November.
Salceda said government is duty-bound to rebuild lives when big help is needed beyond the exigency of disaster response that usually comes in the form of two alternatives in the form of raising taxes and slashing other priorities.
The last two (taxes and slash) are "neither feasible nor desirable since they just shift pesos from the left to the right hand," he added.
He explained that what is needed are new external resources.
In its 5 a.m. update on Tuesday, the National Disaster Coordinating Council reported a P7.17-billion damage due to Pepeng.
This was broken down into: P1.14B-infrastructure; P6.02B-agriculture; and P.003 billion in private property.
It also said that Ondoy resulted to P3.68 billion damage to infrastructure and P6.76B to agriculture.
Sulfur dioxide, quakes show Mayon more restive
By Rey M. Nasol
LEGAZPI CITY -- Sulfur dioxide emission and quakes showed clear signs that Mayon volcano continues to be on a heightened state of restiveness, said the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology on Monday.
A Phivolcs bulletin on Monday said the volcano released 853 tons of sulfur dioxide during the past 24 hours, a reading which was way above the 505 tons a day recorded on Sunday.
The sulfur dioxide disgorge from Mt. Mayon indicated a fluctuating trend ranging from 350 to 853 tons per day.
There were 505 tons per day recorded on Oct. 10; 761 tons on Oct.8; and 350 tons on Oct. 7.
Ed Laguerta, Phivolcs resident volcanologist, said that “350 tons per day to 853 tons per day during the past five days is an indication that magma is intruding into the volcano’s vent.”
The agency's seismic instruments detected 7 volcanic earthquakes which brought about a total of 43 quakes recorded during the past five days or a total of 106 earthquakes rocking the volcano since October 1.
High and low frequency harmonic quakes detected by the instruments signified that magma intrusion is developing in the volcano’s crater vent.
Laguerta said the agency is still assessing the abnormal state of the volcano based on other given parameters like ground deformation and crater glow.
In its latest bulletin, Phivolcs said the volcano did not exhibit crater glow due to cloudy sky prevailing in the volcano’s crater.
Alert level 2 remains hoisted over Mayon with Phivolcs strongly recommending that the 6-kilometer Permanent Danger Zone, including the 7-km extended danger zones in the southeast flank, be off limits to any human activity due to threats from sudden explosions and rockfalls from the volcano's upper slopes.
In August scientists kept watch for a feared collapse of a portion of Mayon’s crater, which holds an estimated 200,000 cubic feet of rocks.
Mayon Volcano, famous for its nearly perfect conical shape, has a height of over 2,400 meters.
The volcano, said to be the most active in the country, has erupted at least 50 times since 1616. Its worst eruption buried Cagsawa town and killed 1,200 people in 1814. An eruption in 1993 killed more than 70 farmers.
Mayon erupted again in 2006.
Mayon Volcano showed one of her beauty features that she seldom displays -- a saucer-like ring of cloud taken Sunday (Oct. 11, 2009) as it manifested more signs of unrests that prompt volcanologists to wait for good weather condition so as to conduct another aerial survey to determine if there is a need to finally raise alert status from level-2 to Alert Level 3. (Photos by Rey M. Nasol)
Landslides threaten 49 Bicol localities - mines bureau
By Rey M. Nasol
LEGAZPI CITY -- Residents of 48 municipalities and a city in the Bicol region have been advised by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) to move to safe ground during heavy rains, due to the high risk of landslides during the typhoon season.
MGB Bicol regional technical director Reynaldo A. Juan stressed the high probability of landslides in eight towns and a city in Albay, eight towns in Camarines Norte, 12 in Camarines Sur, eight in Catanduanes, five in Masbate and seven in Sorsogon.
Juan said the residents of the following municipalities should be prepared for evacuation to safe grounds in case of continuous rains in their areas:
* Bacacay, Libon, Malilipot, Malinao, Manito, Rapu-Rapu, Sto. Domingo and Tiwi towns and Ligao City in Albay; Basud, Capalonga, Labo, Mercedes, Paracale, San Lorenzo Ruiz, San Vicente, and Sta. Elena in Camarines Norte;
* The towns of Buhi, Caramoan, Garchitorena, Goa, Lagonoy, Libmanan, Lupi, Pasacao, Presentacion, Sagnay, Sipocot and Tinambac in Camarines Sur;
* Bagamanoc, Baras, Bato, Caramoran, Gigmoto, Pandan, Panganiban and San Andres in Catanduanes;
* Aroroy, Baleno, Mandaon, Milagros and Mobo in Masbate;
* Bulan, Irosin, Juban, Magallanes, Matnog and Sta. Magdalena towns and Sorsogon City in Sorsogon.
Juan said residents of other municipalities not listed as high risk to landslides but had histories of landslides, have also been encouraged to take precautionary measures and prepare to evacuate in case of signs of an impending landslide.
Albay stops GSIS loan payment deductions
By Rey M. Nasol
LEGAZPI CITY, Albay -- The provincial accountant of Albay has advised the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) that starting this October payroll, the province will not be deducting installment payments from provincial government employees who have outstanding loans.
Albay Gov. Joey Salceda said in a text message Sunday that he had instructed the provincial accounting office to make the move after President Macapagal-Arroyo approved his demand-side relief package to take effect immediately.
Salceda said his office had also advised companies in Albay not to deduct installment payments of employees with pending loans with the Social Security System.
“On the average, the monthly take-home pay should increase by P600 to P900,” he said.
In the recent Cabinet meeting, President Arroyo approved for implementation Salceda's proposal for an P86-billion relief package for victims of storm Ondoy and typhoon Pepeng.
Salceda argued that a one-year deferment of installment payments for salary and housing loans of Social Security System (SSS) and GSIS members affected by the two weather disturbances would result in higher take-home pay for 700,000 GSIS and 4.8 million SSS members.
“This would amount to P32 billion additional cash flow for ordinary households, P4 billion for GSIS and P28 billion for SSS,” he explained.
According to Salceda, “this effectively overrides original plans of the GSIS and SSS for incremental loans to members who need to apply while this plan would require less effort from members and less paper work for the two pension agencies.”
He said a similar package was approved for Albay in 2006 by the President to counter the adverse impact of Mayon eruption and typhoons Milenyo and Reming.
According to Salceda, the measures, combined with the Bicol Calamity Assistance for Rehabilitation Efforts, were instrumental in lifting the province to a stronger platform for recovery.
He added that demand-side interventions that involve providing direct cash benefits to citizens have been emerging as an important tool for disaster response to mitigate the social damage and overturn the potential economic drag of major calamities.
Super software guides Albay in handling calamities
By Rey M. Nasol
LEGAZPI CITY – Planning and development officers in Albay are undergoing intensive five-day training on“computer-simulated scenario” software to help them cope against any type of calamity.
The Rapid Earthquake Damage Assessment (Redas) system will assess the type of buildings essential in any type of calamity to maintain the province’s zero-casualty plan, Governor Joey Salceda said. It will “further empower the planning aspect of where and what kinds of buildings to construct in the province,” he said
Salceda said the move was significant to disaster-risk reduction.
Redas is a simple and user-friendly simulation tool or software that can give a rapid estimate of the possible seismic hazards to be used for inferring the severity of impacts to population, buildings, lifelines and other elements at risk, said Renato Solidum, director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs).
Developed by Phivolcs through a grant-in-aid from the Department of Science and Technology, Redas is one of the technologies featured in the “One-Stop Information Shop of Technologies” of the Philippines.
The inputs needed to produce the seismic hazard maps are location of earthquake epicenter, magnitude and fault data, said Solidum, who is here for part of the training program.
Albay is one of the more hazard-prone provinces in the country, being exposed to “volcanic (eruption), earthquakes, including tsunamis, as well so-called hydrometeorological hazards, such as landslides and floods,” he said
“Various hazard maps such as pyroclastic flow, lava flow, lahar, ashfall and tsunami were built in the Redas database,” said Redas coordinator Maria Leonila Bautista and Bartolome Bautista, associate scientist of Phivolcs.
The Redas started with Version 1.0 and was updated to 1.7. In Version 2.0, it already includes hazards, such as landslides and floods prepared by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau, Bautista said.
“As we continue to upgrade the software, the future plan which we are working on now are the equations and calculations for possible casualties and injuries and damages to properties with or without disaster preparedness or response mechanisms,” she explained.
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