PHILSSA Partners with PAGE in Yolanda/ Haiyan Relief Efforts
in Calamianes Islands, Northern Palawan

Benedict Balderrama

Filipinos of this generation will always remember super-typhoon Yolanda (International name: Haiyan) as the strongest typhoon ever, and also as the biggest natural disaster in the country in terms of the scope and level of devastation. 

Chronology of events

06 November 2013:       Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility.

07 November 2013:       The typhoon continued to intensify as it moved towards Eastern Visayas.

08 November 2013:        First landfall in Guian, Eastern Samar at 4.40 am

                                    Second landfall in Tolosa, Leyte at 7.00 am

                                    Third landfall in Daanbantayan, Cebu at 9.40 am

                                    Fourth landfall in Bantayan Island, Cebu at 10.40 am

                                    Fifth landfall in Concepcion, Iloilo at 12.00 nn

                                    Sixth landfall in Busuanga Island, Palawan at 8.00 pm

09 November 2013:        Exit through the West Philippine Sea at 3.30 pm

 

Over-all disaster situation

Reports from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) mentioned the following effects of the super-typhoon Yolanda:
• 5,759 persons reported dead, 26,233 injured and 1,779 still missing
• Total of 2,379,399 families or 11,240,227 persons affected in 12,095 barangays in 44 provinces, 589 municipalities and 57 cities of Regions IV-A, IV-B, V, VI, VII, VIII,X, XI and CARAGA.
• 1,212,100 damaged houses (599,121 totally-damaged, 612,979 partially-damaged)
• Total cost of damages estimated at PHP35,239,886,330.67, broken down into PHP18,206,735,334.29 for infrastructure and PHP17,033,150,996.38 for agriculture)

On 11 November 2013, President Aquino issued Presidential Proclamation 682 declaring a state of national calamity.

Responses from PHILSSA and Member-NGOs

In solidarity with the affected families and communities, PHILSSA and its member-NGOs initiated their own responses to the devastation wrought by super-typhoon Yolanda.

Among those that PHILSSA had monitored were:
• Baba’s Foundation, with their soup kitchen, community feeding, medical missions and relief distribution to Tacloban City and other affected areas;
• BSBI, with their relief assistance to communities and parishes in Samar;
• CARRD, relief assistance and farm recovery initiatives in Capiz;
• KKP-SIP, relief assistance and psycho-social first aid caravans to Cebu and Leyte;
• KARDAMS, volunteer work with DSWD in Davao City in sorting and packing relief goods;
• FTCP, emergency feeding program and relief assistance;
• KASAGANA-KA, relief assistance to affected MBA partners and other communities;
• UPA, relief and rehabilitation efforts in Taclobaon City;
• COM, with some of their COs mobilized for relief and protection work with Oxfam;
• FORGE, with their logistics hub in Cebu City servicing Christian Aid partners in the whole Visayas region;
• And many countless other ways where PHILSSA, member-NGOs and their staff members, their institutional and personal capacities, had helped the affected families and communities.

 

Angat Calamianes Project

Scanning the landscape of devastated areas and the initial public responses, PHILSSA opted to focus on areas that were underreported and underserved. With the international relief efforts and the initiatives of PHILSSA member-NGOs already on-going blast in Regions VI, VII and VIII, PHILSSA decided to focus on Region IV-B, where Yolanda exited and whose devastation was not much reported in media.

PHILSSA gathered information from the member-NGOs and other contacts in the region and shared the collated information with funding partners and donors.

With support from Christian Aid, PHILSSA partnered with Palawan Advocates for Good Governance and Empowerment (PAGE) to launch the Angat Calamianes Integrated Community Rehabilitation, Preparedness and Resilience Project.

Angat Calamianes would like to promote an integrated and participatory approach to relief and rehabilitation efforts that would address identified needs and issue of the affected families and communities and, at the same time, contribute to building local capacities and mechanisms for disaster preparedness and resilience.

Angat Calamianes has chosen the four (4) municipalities of the Calamianes Islands in Northern Palawan, namely Coron, Busuanga, Culion and Linapacan, as areas for engagement and intervention.

Christian Aid supported Angat Calamianes’ Emergency Shelter Assistance, with the following strategies:
• Technical and social preparation assistance for the four (4) municipalities
• Housing material assistance through cash vouchers for a target of 1200 affected families
• Networking and learning process support for project partners and stakeholders

Other partners of Angat Calamianes are:
• Coron Rural Waterworks and Sanitation Association (CRWSA), for assessment and planning of community water systems; and
• Aksyon para sa Kahandaan sa Kalamidad at Klima (AKKMA), for DRRM advocacy.

 

Project Initialization

Angat Calamianes coordinated with local government units and other stakeholders.

In December 2013, PHILSSA secretariat conducted their first ocular inspection of the areas and courtesy calls to the local government units, especially the local chief executives and the municipal DRRM Officers and Municipal Social Welfare and Development Officers (MSWDOs). Networking was done with other CSOs and local development actors, such as the USAID-ECOFISH project, Community-Centered Conservation (C3), Samdhana Institute and local indigenous people leaders. Coordination was also done with agencies that had done initial shelter assistance, such as the National Housing Authority and the Palawan Provincial Government. Later visits focused on local communities with tighter coordination with barangay officials and community leaders. Local markets were also assessed for availability and affordability of housing materials.

Output of these visits and activities are barangay level listing of affected families with totally and partially-damaged houses, as well as initial concepts and systems for selection of beneficiaries, purchase/ distribution of housing materials to the selected beneficiaries, and monitoring and evaluation of the project.
Beneficiary Selection and Social Preparation

In January 2014, Angat Calamianes hired community facilitators to lead participatory community validation and beneficiary selection. Community teams were formed made up of barangay officials and community volunteers to validate the list of affected families by documenting housing damages zand community needs, screening the potential beneficiaries and consulting the community members on earlier assistance the residents had received. In the process, the team disseminated information on Angat Calamianes, the planned emergency shelter assistance, and contact details for questions and feedback.

At the same time, the list of possible housing materials was finalized and the local hardwares and suppliers were canvassed on the availability and prices of the listed possible housing materials.

Thus, the beneficiary list was validated, giving priority to poor and vulnerable families with totally damaged houses who had not received prior shelter assistance. The system for ordering, delivery and distribution was also finalized, with the local suppliers identified, ordering forms/ scheme developed, and delivery/distribution plan coordinated.

 

Beneficiary Selection and Social Preparation

In January 2014, Angat Calamianes hired community facilitators to lead participatory community validation and beneficiary selection. Community teams were formed made up of barangay officials and community volunteers to validate the list of affected families by documenting housing damages and community needs, screening the potential beneficiaries and consulting the community members on earlier assistance the residents had received. In the process, the team disseminated information on Angat Calamianes, the planned emergency shelter assistance, and contact details for questions and feedback.

At the same time, the list of possible housing materials was finalized and the local hardware and suppliers were canvassed on the availability and prices of the listed possible housing materials.

Thus, the beneficiary list was validated, giving priority to poor and vulnerable families with totally damaged houses who had not received prior shelter assistance. The system for ordering, delivery and distribution was also finalized, with the local suppliers identified, ordering forms/ scheme developed, and delivery/distribution plan coordinated.

 

Emergency Shelter Assistance

Training-orientations on Building Back Better was conducted with the help of AKKMA and Technical Assistance Organization (TAO-Pilipinas). AKKMA provided input on Community-Based Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (CBDRRM) and Participatory Disaster Rehabilitation, emphasizing people’s planning and issue advocacy. TAO-Pilipinas provided further discussion on CBDRRM concepts and strategies, and input on disaster-resilient housing approaches and designs. These were conducted in selected communities in the 4 municipalities last January 21 to 25. Re-echo was conducted in the other beneficiary communities last January 26 to 30.

After the training-orientations, beneficiaries made their selection of the housing materials they need for rebuilding their houses, within the Php 5,000 allotment for each beneficiary family.

The selected materials of each beneficiary family were consolidated into community orders. Delivery and distribution was coordinated with the local suppliers and the barangay officials/ community leaders for the delivery schedule, information dissemination and distribution scheme.

Delivery and distribution was done in February and March 2014 for the 1,215 beneficiaries in 33 barangays in the 4 Calamianes municipalities.

 

Municipality	Barangay	Beneficiaries
Coron	9 barangays	714
	Marcilla	90
	Tagumpay	118
	Banuang Daan/Cabugao	174
	Bulalacao	101
	Bintuan	100
	Decalachao/ Turda	71
	Decabobo	60
Busuanga	7 barangays	248
	Buluang/Quezaon	44
	New/Old Busuanga	119
	Bogtong/Sagrada/ Sto. Niño	85
Culion	11 barangays	196
	Balala/ Burabod/ Jardin	9
	Galoc/ Luac	41
	Binudac	54
	Tiza/ Osmena	43
	Baldat/ Libis/ Malaking Patag	49
Linapacan	6 barangays	57
	San Miguel	19
	Maroyogroyog/ Decabaitot	23
	San Nicolas/ Nangalao/ Pical	15
4 Municipalities	33 Barangays	1215 Beneficiaries

 

Networking and Coordination

Aside from coordination with local government and stakeholders, Angat Calamianes also conducted networking and coordination activities with national government, other CSOs, and multilateral institutions.

Government Agencies	Other CSOs/ Foundations	Multilateral/ International Grps
DSWD DILG NAPC NHA OCD-NDRRMC OPARR	Solar Energy Foundation Peace and Equity Foundation PTFCF Simbahang Lingkod ng Bayan Other Christian Aid partners	UNDP ILO USAID-ECOFISH Project Give2Asia UP Alumni Association -Geneva

Other Leveraged Resources

The Solar Energy Foundation donated 100 solar lanterns which were distributed as follows:
• 25 lanterns for the municipality of Coron
• 25 lanterns for the municipality of Busuanga
• 25 lanterns for the municipality of Culion
• 25 lanterns for the municipality of Linapacan

The LGU’s MSWDOs provided cash-for-work for the actual house-rebuilding activity using the project’s housing materials.

The UP Alumni Association of Geneva (UPAAG) provided funds for two pilot projects on livelihood rehabilitation project (seaweeds culture) for Barangay Marcilla and mangrove rehabilitation/ management for Barangay Buluang.

Project Documentation, Monitoring and Evaluation

Community feedbacking was done in selected communities (2 barangays each in the 4 municipalities) last February 25 – 28:
• Coron – Barangay Tagumpay and Marcilla
• Busuanga – Barangay Buluang and Quezon
• Culion – Barangay Luac and Galoc
• Linapacan – Barangay San Miguel and Decabaitot

A multi-stakeholder assessment-planning workshop was conducted last March 11 in Gran Vista Resort in Coron to evaluate the emergency shelter assistance, discuss community situation and needs, and recommend rehabilitation strategies. Participants included LGU focal persons and staff, barangay officials, community leaders and indigenous people representatives.

A staff assessment-planning workshop was conducted last March 13 – 14 to process project experiences, assess the gathered community feedbacks and multi-stakeholder evaluation/ recommendations, cull lessons, and formulate initial rehabilitation plan and strategies.

A technical discussion and planning session was also done with PAGE board members last March 29 – 30 in Puerto Princesa for project updating, technical discussion on disaster rehabilitation and resilience, and discuss directions for the Angat Calamianes project.

Project documentation materials will be developed from the project experiences and lessons:
• a documentation video, and
• a Salindiwa issue featuring the project.

 

Project Reflections and Learning

1. Humanitarian emergency response should prioritize the neediest and the most vulnerable in the community. Identifying them and selecting the beneficiaries should involve the community. For they know each other best.

2. To minimize conflict in the community before, during and after relief assistance, there must be clear and fair mechanisms for people to ask questions and give feedback. Proper information and appropriate responses help in diffusing tension and addressing issues being raised.

3. Participation of the beneficiaries in most, if not all, stages of project planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of disaster response interventions contributes to affirming the dignity and rights of the survivors, building their confidence and capacities, and contributing to their empowerment and sustainability as a community.

4. In disaster situation, people all want to help, in their own ways. There is a need for effective and meaningful coordination among the assisting groups to limit duplication of efforts, minimize competition and tension among the groups, and promote positive synergy among stakeholders.

5. The road to recovery, preparedness and resilience is long, uphill and difficult. External groups and institutions would come and go, but the local community will always be there. Interventions should empower the local communities by forming strong organizations with capable leaders, appropriate systems, and a common vision for the future.

 

This article was also published at Salin-Diwa’s July-December 2013 Issue, a semi-annual publication of PHILSSA.

Benedict Balderrama is the National Coordinator of Partnership of Philippine Support Service Agencies (PHILSSA).