PROFILE: MANILA, THE PHILIPPINES
Former Spanish and US colony
Location: SE Asia
7,107 islands
Philippines population: 103 million
Urban population: 49%
Rate of urbanization: 2.3% annually
Manila population: 11.5 million
PHYSICAL HAZARDS IN THE PHILIPPINES &
METRO MANILA
Earthquakes Floods Cyclonic Storms Tsunamis Landslides
Droughts Forest Fires Volcanoes Epidemics
VIDEO: TYPHOON ONDOY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ_psz7d58U
TYPHOONS
RISK: DEVELOPMENT AND LAND USE
Urbanization
Informal settlements
in flood risk areas
Coastal real estate
development
RISK: INFRASTRUCTURE
No sewage system
Drainage maintenance
RISK: POPULATION
RISK: ECONOMIC STRUCTURES
Capitalism
State spending cuts
RISK: POVERTY
Chronic disasters Lack of political
representation
Weak social networks
VULNERABILITY TO CLIMATE CHANGE
INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON RISKS
Adverse affect on all sectors
Increase in number of extreme
weather events
Rising sea levels
Increasing vulnerability
GOVERNMENT RESPONSE TO ONDOY TIMELINE
Violence mars
elections and hurts Philippine
implementation of Disaster Risk
Gov. Needs Reduction and
Ondoy hits Top-down Assessment Gov Needs
Sept 26, Assessment Management
recovery plan published
2009 recommendations Act June 4,
Pepeng hits developed Nov Nov 26,
May 2010 2010
Oct 3-9 2009
Martial law
State of declared Next cycle Formation and
Secondary
Calamity Dec 4 of Typhoons implementation
effects and
declared Oct 2 Damages and begins with of Hazard and
social stressors
needs are Conson July vulnerability
worsen
estimated and 14 plans
conditions Nov
assessed Oct continues…
TIPPING POINTS FOR AND BARRIERS TO
CHANGE AND GOVERNMENT RESPONSE
Quantification
Reconstruction Foci
Rural Production
Flood Management
Housing
Disaster Risk Reduction
Local governance
Long-term Monitoring
Prioritization of Action
FRAMEWORK FOR OPPORTUNITY/CHANGE
(Pelling 2011)
Un realized
Community based
Resilience
Governmental adaptations
to Typhoon Ondoy 2009
WINDOWS OF OPPORTUNITY FOR LEARNING
RECOGNISING REACHABLE TRANSITIONS
Working with Informal settlements
Provision of services
Movement beyond reconstruction
A more holistic discourse on
vulnerability
Social and community based resilience
WINDOWS OF OPPORTUNITY FOR LEARNING
COMMUNITY BASED RESILIENCE
Community level action supported
by wider engagement with urban
political and institutional
structures.
Building up local social capital.
Shift away from an overreliance on
central government.
Power of vulnerable communities
to develop strategies and actions
to improve their resilience.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
What is the role of the government in
developing community-based
resilience?
How are learning opportunities
limited or enhanced by the
Philippine’s (post)colonial context?
What are the issues of having
international aid be the main driver
of disaster resilience?
REFERENCES
Bankoff, G. (1999). A history of poverty: The politics of natural disasters in the Philippines, 1985-95. Pacific Review, 12(3), 381-420.
Bankoff, G. (2003). Constructing Vulnerability: The Historical, Natural and Social Generation of Flooding in Metro Manila. Disasters,
27(3), 224-238.
Baross, Paul (1990). Sequencing and Land Development: The price implications od legal and illegal settlement growth. From
Baross & Van Linder. The Transformation of Land Supply systems in Third World Systems. Aldershot, Ellang :Averbury.
Central Intelligence Agency. (2009). The World Factbook. Washington, DC: Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieve from
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/rp.html
Cheng, M. H. (2009). Natural disasters highlight gaps in preparedness. The Lancet, 374(9698), 1317-1318. doi: 10.1016/S0140-
6736(09)61808-0
Gomez, J. (2009, Sep 28). Typhoon Overwhelms Philippines. The Guelph Mercury. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/docview/356206465?accountid=14656
Herman Joseph, S. K. (2010). THE PHILIPPINES IN 2009: The fourth-quarter collapse. Southeast Asian Affairs, , 237-257. Retrieved
from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/docview/763153064?accountid=14656
Lu, Xinyan, Kevin K. W. Cheung, Yihong Duan, 2012: Numerical study on the formation of typhoon ketsana (2003). part i: roles of the
meso-scale convective systems. Mon. Wea. Rev., 140, 100–120. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/2011MWR3649.1
MacLeod, C. (2009, October 5). Typhoon dodges recovering Philippine capital ; areas around manila struggle to rebound from
ketsana's flooding. Usa Today, pp. 7A.
REFERENCES
Pelling, M. (2003). The Vulnerability of Cities. London, UK: Earthscan Publications Ltd.
Pelling, M.; Dill, K. (2010). Disaster politics: tipping points for change in the adaptation of sociopolitical regimes. Progress in Human
Geography 34(1) (2010) pp. 21–37.
Pelling, M. (2011). Adaptation to Climate Change: from resilience to transformation. NewYork, NY :Routledge
Porio, E. (2011). Vulnerability, adaptation, and resilience to floods and climate change-related risks among marginal, riverine
communities in Metro Manila. Asian Journal of Social Science, 39(4), 425-445.
Typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng: Post-Disaster Needs Assessment. (2009) Government of the Republic of the Philippines, Asian
Development Bank, European Commission, United Nations, AusAID, CIDA, GTZ, JICA, Royal Netherlands Government, and
USAID.
United Nations. (2010). Synthesis Report on Ten ASEAN Countries Disaster Risks Assessment: ASEAN Disaster Risk Management
Initiative. Retrieved from http://www.unisdr.org/we/inform/publications/18872
Zoleta-Nantes, D. (2003). Differential impacts of flood hazards among the street children, the urban poor and residents of wealthy
neighborhoods in Metro Manila, Philippines. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, 7(3), 239-266.
