SUPER Typhoon Yolanda (international name Haiyan), as well as the recent tropical cyclones that severely hit the Philippines, taught the government to improve its disaster response, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. said Friday.
In a statement during the commemoration of the 11th anniversary of Yolanda which left thousands of people dead in November 2013, Marcos said there is no room for complacency in preparing for disasters, considering that the country is still recovering from Severe Tropical Storm Kristine (Trami) and Super Typhoon Leon (Kong-rey).
“Calamities are teaching moments and every one that came after Yolanda delivered a payload of lessons that instructed us how to improve our response,” Marcos said.
“As the most disaster-prone country in the world, we cannot do otherwise. We do not have the luxury of ignorance, inaction and complacency. Thus, we must intensify our efforts to mitigate and adapt to the challenges of climate change and urgently abate our vulnerability to disasters,” he added.
Marcos stressed that while no one is to blame for the damage and loss of lives during the tropical cyclones’ onslaught, the government should make sure that “what the state owed to impacted people and places will be satisfactorily settled.”
He said the government must do everything to make communities “more resilient” to enable them to brace better against typhoons and build back better after the disasters.
“Amidst our ongoing recovery from typhoons Kristine and Leon, we commemorate the 11th anniversary of (Super) Typhoon Yolanda. Our ongoing crucibles remind us that the powerful lessons brought by the strongest typhoon in history should not be lost with the passage of time. Heeding these is the best way to honor the lives lost,” Marcos said.
“Since then, we have strengthened institutional bulwarks against calamities, which our countrymen have matched with increasing care and compassion for those affected. It is also because of this bayanihan (cooperation) of our race that the pain of victims is assuaged and the rebuilding of homes and livelihoods is accelerated.”
Marcos expressed gratitude to the international community for providing assistance to the Philippines to ensure the fast recovery of disaster victims.
“Their response reaffirmed a tenet civilization must uphold when one nation faces an emergency or an existential threat — that no man is an island, indeed. All unfulfilled commitments made in the past for Yolanda rehabilitation are responsibilities we fully assume,” he said. (PNA)
