Typhoon, Volcano Eruption, Earthquake …and Building a House on Rock.
Archive | September 2014
Typhoon, Volcano Eruption, Earthquake …and Building a House on Rock
c! September 24, 2014
Typhoon, Volcano Eruption, Earthquake
…and Building a House on Rock
WHEN the rain falls and the floods go up, or when a volcano sparks and coughs out lava, or when the earth shakes, Alexander Pama gets a chance to see if the Civil Defense Preparedness program of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) works.
Pama served as 32nd Flag Officer in Command, the highest position in the Philippine Navy.
Rear Admiral Pama rescued Filipinos during a violent conflict in Sabah, headed the Navy’s Anti-Terrorism Task Group and mounted military offensive against the Abu Sayaf Group—just a couple of the numerous exemplary leadership achievements for which he has been awarded.
Last year, he retired from the Navy and now, instead of battling insurgents, and his fight is against typhoons, and volcanoes, and earthquakes, not to mention man-made disasters.
Pama is now Undersecretary under the Office of the Executive Secretary, serving as administrator of the Office of the Civil Offense and executive director of NDRRMC.
Undersecretary Alexander Pama with Deedee Siytangco, Bulong Pulungan moderator.
A couple of weeks ago, Bulong Pulungan, the media forum at the Hotel Sofitel, invited Undersecretary Pama as guest on Tuesday, September 23, to discuss issues on disaster preparedness.
As if on cue, the rains of Typhoon Mario fell and flooded Luzon, Mayon Volcano in Albay started having a tantrum during the weekend, and an earthquake of 5.0 magnitude hit Claveria, Cagayan, providing a wet, hot, shaky backdrop for Pama’s presentation in Bulong last Tuesday.
A well decorated combat veteran, Pama nevertheless admitted somehow intimidated appearing before what he called “an institution” such as Bulong.
But a tough military man, he came prepared. Without missing a second, he showed a slide presentation of NDRRMC’s Civil Defense Preparedness program.
Pama presented two laws mandating the function of the NDRRMC—the Climate Change Act of 2009 (Republic Act 9729), and the DRRM Act of 2010 (Republic Act 10121).
“R.A 10121 changed government focus from disaster relief to disaster risk and reduction management,” Pama pointed out.
Thus, what was then the National Disaster Coordinating Council became the National Disaster Risk and Reduction Management Council.
“So now we are more proactive,” Pama said. “We focus on mitigation, prevention, preparedness, response and recovery, and rehabilitation.”
Pama showed the DRRM Council organization chart where implementation of the programs go through a network from the national council down to the region, province, municipal and city, and barangay levels.
A graph on disasters stemming from climate change showed a peak in the number of deaths up to 5,000 in 1990, and up to 6,000 in 2013 during the Typhoon Yolanda onslaught.
Another risk analysis project showed earthquake devastation of 7.2 magnitude cost the country P2.4 million economic loss while a 6.5 magnitude cost P1.9 million.
To be able to reduce disaster devastation, Pama said NDRRMC has come up with a formula for pre-disaster risk assessment (PDRA).
“We are now institutionalizing the PDRA to evaluate hazards by their characteristics and possible impacts and risks to the populace,” Pama said.
The goal, he added, is to strengthen early warning systems through the use of modern technology led by the Department of Science and Technology and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
NDRRMC is also holding skills training for communities and institutions to cope with disasters.
To reduce damage to agriculture, Pama said the government response is crop insurance through partnership with institutions such as the Asian Development Bank.
Pama said the NDRRMC program follows President Aquino’s Build Back Better Philippines platform.
Quote Tweak
The first phrase of this article comes from our childhood song that goes…
The wise man built his house upon the rock
And the rain came a-tumbling down…
Oh, the rain came down
And the floods came up…
And the house on the rock stood firm.
The source of the song is the biblical quote from Matthew 7:25: And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.
A second part of the song points out that the foolish man built his house on the sand. When the rains fell and the floods went up, the house went splat!
Read again Pama’s presentation and judge for yourself if Build Back Better Philippines is built on rock.
— Cynthia U. Santiago Photos by Edmundo L. Santiago
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Blessed Are the Poor…and Health Insured
Blessed Are the Poor…and Health Insured
C! FLASHBACK FRIDAY
September 12, 2014
Blessed Are the Poor…and Health Insured
JUAN (not his real name) met a vehicle accident, suffering a broken leg.
When he was about to be discharged from the hospital Juan’s family found out they could have an ample discount on the hospital bill through Juan’s PhilHealth coverage.
But the paper work would take a couple more days to be accomplished. So Juan could not yet get out of the hospital and his hospital bill would continue to pile up until his family could submit his accomplished PhilHealth papers.
“Your family should have attended to the PhilHealth requirements as soon as you were confined,” a nurse told Juan.
Not a few have suffered Juan’s sorry experience. Concerned with the patient’s survival, his family members or guardians are focused on the day-to-day management of his condition, and usually think of accomplishing paper requirements a day or two before he is to be discharged—if not on the day itself.
Health Secretary Enrique Ona (above) who was guest at Bulong Pulungan, the Tuesday media forum at the Hotel Sofitel last August 26, said that 82 percent of the population are already covered by PhilHealth.
The Health Secretary who, like a classroom professor gave a lecture on PhilHealth, said the provision for the poor has been increased from P100 to P200 per month.
But why is such good news not known to the target beneficiaries like Juan, or not even to members of the media?
Secretary Ona said there really is a need for a wide dissemination of the PhilHealth benefits.
Indeed, if you google information about PhilHealth, you’ll find out that a 2008 National Demographic Health Survey, showed that only 38 percent of the respondents were aware that at least one of their family members were enrolled in PhilHealth.
Secretary Ona thus appealed to media to help promote the PhilHealth program.
The task at hand is to provide PhilHealth cards to the target beneficiaries—so that they are aware that they indeed have a health insurance.
But as of the time of Secretary Ona’s presentation in Bulong, he said PhilHealth is still at the stage of bidding for the printer of the cards.
Even without an ID card, however, a beneficiary may be identified through a PhilHealth masterlist. Especially for the poor, the list is based on the Department of Social Welfare’s record of indigents qualified as beneficiaries of its Conditional Cash Transfer Program.
PCSO Desk
In response to the need for public awareness on PhilHealth, another Bulong guest, Joy Rojas, who has been serving as acting head of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office since the resignation of PCSO Chair Margie Juico,said PCSO is putting a desk in government hospitals to assist patients in availing themselves of PhilHealth benefits.
Promoting PhilHealth, seated, from left: Larry Cedro, PCSO Charity officer in charge; Joy Rojas, Secretary Enrique Ona, and Deedee Siytangco, moderator, with members of the Bulong Pulungan core group.
Benefits for Senior Citizens
Meanwhile, as of this writing, a proposal for mandatory PhilHealth benefits for senior citizens is pending in the Senate.
Senate Bill No. 712 proposed by Senator Ralph Recto grants PhilHealth coverage for all 6.1. million senior citizens, amending previous laws stipulating that the health benefits would be provided only to indigents.
So, rich or poor, you can be a PhilHealth beneficiary. And you’d be better off soon as you get your ID.
FLASHBACK QUOTE
As you may have noticed, the title of this article is a twist of a part of Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
– Matthew 5:3
Bible experts note that Jesus was not talking about the poor, but rather, the poor in spirit—which means those who have a heart for the poor.
Since the PhilHealth program benefits mostly the poor, then those who would implement it properly may be regarded as poor in spirit—and thus are blessed.
–Cynthia U. Santiago Photos by Edmundo L. Santiago
How I Caught the Politics Germ
C! THROWBACK THURSDAY
How I Caught the Politics Germ
By CYNTHIA U. SANTIAGO
YEARS ago– when we hadn’t heard that shaking hands was unhealthy—I shook hands with Senator Gerry Roxas Sr.
Those were the days when we hadn’t heard, either, of many political parties. We knew only two big ones: the Nacionalista Party and the Liberal Party.
At the helm of the Nacionalista Party was Ferdinand Marcos Sr., then President of the Philippines, who came to power in 1965, was re-elected in 1969. And since we hadn’t heard either of such a thing as Cha-cha—you know, changing the constitution– he would have been history when his second term would have ended in 1972.
We hadn’t heard of People Power either. But there was such a thing as the First Quarter Storm plus a series of rallies and demonstrations on Mendiola Street that led to Gate 4 of Malacanang, as well as toward Plaza Miranda—which, for better or for worse, had but demolished not only Marcos but his Nacionalista Party.
And so, the Liberal Party was so sure that its happiest place by 1973 would be Malacanang.
Shattered Dreams
Gerardo “Gerry” Roxas Sr. was senator from 1963-1972.
At the time, not counting the young Benigno Aquino II, Gerry was the big bet of the Liberal Party to be candidate for President. And why not? Gerry was heir of former President Manuel Roxas, we really were not squeamish yet about such a thing as political dynasty, and so, okay, he can be the next President.
On August 21, 1971, happily, the Liberal Party held a rally in Plaza Miranda, presenting Gerry Roxas as a 1973 presidentiable, along with the LP senatoriables.
But as the LP stars lined up onstage, and raised their hands to claim victory, someone threw two grenades toward the stage.
A piece or two little shrapnel grazed the temple and toes of one Edmundo Santiago, then a rookie photographer covering the event, and who would later become my husband. But that’s another story.
A sadder consequence, for the Liberal Party that is, was the blast blew to pieces the party’s Malacanang dreams. Those days of violence apparently gave Marcos the justification to declare Martial Law in 1972, and he stayed in power for 20 long years.
The LP stars lost their luster..
Gerry Roxas, apparently slowed down by wounds he sustained during the Plaza Miranda bombing, died in New York City in 1982. He was only 57 years old.
Ninoy Aquino was assassinated on August 21, 1983. He was only 50 years old.
And then, in 1986, we finally heard of People Power, Marcos became history, and Ninoy’s wife, Corazon Cojuangco Aquino, became President.
We then also heard of the Cha-cha, nailing the term of the succeeding Malacanang tenants—whoever they would be– to six years only, no re-election.
Then another two decades after, the Liberal Party was back in the limelight, fielding Gerry Roxas’s heir, Mar, as presidentiable.
But then Cory died in 2009. And what seemed a universal pining to make her live again persuaded Mar to give Malacanang to Cory and Ninoy’s heir, Benigno Aquino III.
Liberal Party, Live!
Fast forward to August 19, 2014—two days before August 21, the 48th anniversary of the Plaza Miranda Bombing and the 31st anniversary of Ninoy’s assassination.
At the Bulong Pulungan, from left: Rep. Ben Evardone, Rep. Edgar Erice; Rep. Mel Sarmiento, and Deedee Siytangco, moderaror.
At the Bulong Pulungan, the media forum at the Hotel Sofitel, last August 19, we saw the Liberal Party very much alive in three LP congressmen: Rep. Mel Sarmiento of Western Samar who is the secretary general of the Liberal Party; Rep. Edgar Erice of Caloocan; and Rep. Ben Evardone of Eastern Samar.
The three, of course, had nothing but good words for their leader in Malacanang.
They talked of “continuity” because there’s no enough time for Noynoy to complete whatever work he’s doing now.
They talked about the Cha-cha—mainly to change some economic provisions, but not ensuring that some political amendments may be inserted during the process.
They talked about Mar as “second best” because of course, Noynoy is first.
They talked about Jejomar Binay and debating about the issue of political dynasty.
But most of what they were saying, they pointed out, was “personal” and not the official stand of the Liberal Party.
So, when, if ever, the Liberal Party will have just one voice?
An Infectious Germ
Anyway, years ago, I was a rookie writer for Weekly Nation magazine, the political magazine put out by Makabayan Publishing, owned by the Aranetas—the clan of Judy Araneta, wife of Gerry, and mother of Mar.
Now you know why I was shaking hands with Gerry Roxas (above) — one of those days when I had to interview him for an article in his family’s Weekly Nation, with Alfred Marquez (right), then associate editor of the magazine– or was it to just make a courtesy call?
Yes, those were the days you didn’t think you’d catch a germ or two by shaking hands with people. Not unlike today when we are advised that a fist bump is the healthy way to greet people—because a handshake transmits 10 times more bacteria than the fist bump.
But I don’t think I caught bacteria from that handshake with Gerry Roxas… except perhaps this germ I’ve named Politics– and I am forever wondering if there’s a vaccine for it.
THROWBACK QUOTE
“Only when we are vigilant—ready to participate in the public dialogue, militant in the protection of our cherished rights and assertive in the invalid of constructive dissent—will we be able to reverse the downward trend and ensure the ascendancy of a truly democratic and resilient state, a society responsive to the challenges we face.”
— Gerardo M. Roxas
HOW DO YOU SOLVE A PR PROBLEM OF A PRESIDENT?
HOW DO YOU SOLVE A PR PROBLEM OF A PRESIDENT?
THIS article is not about a particular President. It’s not even delving on a problem of or with the President—if there’s any.
This article is about public relations and interesting public relations projects, like if you have to make a PR package for a President.
Such PR challenge would most likely be the juicy part in the PR Congress to be mounted by the Public Relations Society of the Philippines (PRSP) at the Taal Vista Hotel in Tagaytay City on September 25-26, 2014.
The PR package about the President and his administration actually consisted the juicy bulk of questions thrown to PRSP’s leaders when they presented the PR Congress at the Bulong Pulungan media forum yesterday, Tuesday, September 2.
Bong Osorio (above), ABS-CBN vice president for Corporate Communications, and PRSP president, led the Bulong panel which included Ronald Jabal, media relations manager of Shell Philippines, and Rochelle Hilario, former marketing and communications manager of Philex Mining, with Deedee Siytangco as moderator.
Osorio said PRSP, founded by Jose Carpio in 1957, is the country’s premier organization of PR professionals which “singlehandedly spurred the growth of Philippine PR through seminars, training programs, workshops, awards, contacts, publications, and networking.”
PRSP also introduced a four-year PR curriculum which was approved by the Ministry of Education and Culture, to several Philippine universities, Osorio added.
PRSP is holding the PR Congress in observance of September as PR Month, as declared by Presidential Proclamation No. 1357.
Dubbed PR: It’s a Love Thing, the Congress will zero in on challenges to the public relations industry in the Digital Age.
Rochelle Hilario (above) said the millennials –those born in 2000, the start of the Third Millennium, and onwards– are now what’s called the Generation Like. That’s because they desire to be recognized or to belong to a group—yes, to be “liked”—especially on online social media.
Ronald Jabal (above) pointed out that the challenge of PR practitioners, however, is to make a product or client not only to be “liked” but to be “loved” which means the PR package should result in sales or loyal acceptance of what’s being promoted.
But are the millennials who are not yet of voting age the right target for promoting such “product” as a politician needing to raise his social weather rating?
Jabal said the PR package targeting the millennials is at best an awareness program influencing the young people so they can influence the decision of the qualified voters—their parents. Yes, make good use of the kids’ ever potent Pester Power.
So then, what’s the best PR strategy for say, President Noynoy Aquino, if ever he needs one? For his beleaguered Cabinet members?
For Mar Roxas so he could be the promised continuity messiah of the Aquino administration?
What about for Jejomar Binay, now being clobbered by the opposition over the controversial Makati City Hall Building?
Or is there ever a PR concoction for Janet Napoles?
PR experts Osorio, Jabal, and Hilario dished out—for free– PR packages, which, sorry, we can’t post because either they’re complicated or they’re off the record.
But here’s a clue: All packages are anchored on the Congress title: “It’s a Love Thing.”
— Cynthia U. Santiago Photos by Ed L. Santiago
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