THE Makati Business Club (MBC) is calling on the national and local governments to ensure “robust” disaster resilience programs in their respective cities and municipalities to protect the country’s industries and people.
The MBC made this remark after Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan underscored on Thursday that the country still faces “a considerable burden in the form of high inflation due to heightened external risks and the brunt of recent typhoons.”
Balisacan said this after the Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA) announcement that the Philippine economy grew by 7.6 percent in the third quarter of this year. He stressed that despite positive growth prospects, the country is facing a “greater challenge” on disaster resilience.
“There are many challenges both external and domestic. For us, the greater challenge is addressing quickly the adverse effects of natural disasters like the recent five typhoons in the span of a few months. That is quite difficult for our fellowmen especially those in agriculture…the damage was quite high,” he added.
With this, the socioeconomic planning secretary unveiled that one of the key features in the Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028 ensures that jobs will not be easily washed away by typhoons.
“In our Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028 we put a lot of emphasis on resilient growth making sure that the jobs that we create do not disappear just by the strike of one typhoon,” Balisacan said.
To be resilient from disasters, the socioeconomic planning secretary said the government focuses on climate change adaptation measures such as reforestation and coordinated flood or water management across local government units (LGUs).
“We will ensure a timely response to address the damage inflicted by extreme weather events in the country,” Balisacan noted.
In October, based on the damage assessment report of the Department of Agriculture (DA) Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Operations Center (DA-DRRM OpCen), 108,594 farmers and fisherfolk lost income due to the devastation brought by Typhoon “Karding.”
Meanwhile, tropical storm Paeng, which ravaged the regions of Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) and the Western Visayas, among others, resulted in the loss of potential income of 762 farmers, according to DA-DRRM OpCen’s report two weeks ago.