Philippines emphasizes disaster risk management after devastation by typhoon

The Philippines has emphasized the need to build effective disaster risk management capabilities after typhoon Xangsane killed about 200 people, plunged Metro Manila in the dark for one week and destroyed billions of pesos of properties.

The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), the country's central planning agency, has highlighted the importance of coming up with an effective and appropriate disaster risk management (DRM) plan during a forum jointly sponsored by NEDA and the United Nations Development Program and held recently in Metro Manila, said NEDA on Thursday.

"The Philippines is extremely vulnerable in calamities, as it experienced numerous natural disasters that devastated particular areas in the country. Over time, we have set in place quick response mechanisms during and after a disaster," said Socioeconomic Planning Secretary and NEDA Director-General Romulo L. Neri.

The disaster risk management forum gathered officials and experts on volcanic, rainfall, geological and erosion hazards, and mitigation measures to brief participants on different DRM concepts and frameworks, as well as hazards present in the country, said NEDA.

The Philippines has also been hit by a major landslide in which some 1,000 people died and a serious oil spill which brought marine environmental disaster since this year.

A landslide buried alive some 1,000 people in a village in Southern Leyte in south-central Philippines in March this year, while an oil spill from a sunken tanker off the central Guimaras Island caused widespread pollution in the seas of the region in August.

Last week, typhoon Xangsane ravaged Metro Manila and southern Luzon, causing a week-long breakdown of power in many parts of the capital region and provinces nearby while killing some 200 people and displacing 1.3 million others.

The forum is also the first step towards nationwide disaster risk management planning by identifying communities at risk, and prepare for resettlement or relocation of disaster-hit population and appropriate disaster mitigation technologies, said NEDA. Source: Xinhua