Berkley Center

The combination of being in the Philippines and interning at the World Health Organization (WHO) at this time means that Typhoon Haiyan (local name Yolanda) has consumed much of my life for the past few weeks. As the national capital, Manila is where much of the aid donations and relief supplies are sent for redistribution, and it's the hub of relief activity coordination. I have volunteered at the Red Cross to help pack supplies and attended meetings to learn about the WHO Philippines country office’s coordination of disaster response activities in conjunction with the Philippines Department of Health.

What is so saddening about the situation is that natural disasters (though rarely of such destructive force as that of Yolanda) are essentially commonplace in the Philippines, a country that experiences more tropical storms per year than almost any other country on earth. Further, being in the “Ring of Fire” region in the Pacific makes the Philippines prone to earthquakes. You would think that with all of this unfortunate experience, the country over time would have gotten better at anticipating and responding to these disasters—but for infuriating reasons, this just isn’t the case.

Corruption is clearly an important factor that hinders the extent to which the country can prepare for, and respond to, natural disasters. The provinces most affected by Typhoon Yolanda, in the central Visayas region of the country, are some of the poorest areas of the Philippines. Proper infrastructure could greatly mitigate the devastating effects of disasters, but building codes are often not adhered to in construction, and issues with dam construction and water supply even within the capital of Manila are troublesome. The decentralized government and historical misuse of public funds through “pork barrel” spending (allocated to specific members of Congress and not subject to the same oversight as other funds) make it difficult to invest in proper preparation measures and can prevent the money from reaching those who need it. When I accompanied my supervisor to Palawan, a province in the southwest, to visit rural health facilities to track monitoring for a malaria drug efficacy study, we stopped by the capital to meet with staff from the Provincial Health Office and obtain information about relief efforts in the northern areas of the province. We were told that the governor is exceedingly wealthy, and his 14-seater helicopter was being used to deliver supplies, and to gather information about the situation. Now, while it is obviously commendable that the governor’s personal resources are being put to good use to help the calamity-stricken areas, it is difficult to be devoid of suspicion of corruption when considering the magnitude of his wealth against the widespread poverty in his province.

A widely circulated Associated Press article, "Philippine Corruption Magnifies Effects of Typhoon" (November 18), sheds light on this issue. The very first few sentences discuss how a New Zealand newspaper mentioned several aid agencies for Filipinos living abroad to donate to Yolanda relief efforts, but didn’t mention ways of donating to the government. This lends insight into why external aid and support has such a massive role in disaster response and reconstruction efforts in the country; it’s not necessarily only that the country lacks adequate resources of its own, but also the transparency and accountability needed to handle the influx of resources from the international community, at least on its own. My supervisor and other WHO staff have commented on the role that the organization is now playing in the Yolanda response efforts—the magnitude of the response, and emphasis on communication and coordination amongst those working on the front lines—is seemingly unprecedented. Although the government corruption and transparency situation is improving—for example, through the establishment of a Foreign Aid Transparency Hub, and recent rulings on the unconstitutionality of pork barrel spending—it seems that external assistance will continue to play a critical role in the Philippines’ disaster response in the foreseeable future.

Although natural disasters and their impact cannot be fully predicted, that doesn’t relieve the government of the responsibility to ensure that it implements the aspects that it can control with integrity. “For us Filipinos, this is just life,” explained a member of the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council whom we met in Palawan. “We just have to move on.” While this resilience and resolve of the Filipino people, which I have time and time again heard referenced by others, is heartbreakingly moving, this resilience should not be the only thing that this country must rely on to move forward.