CITY of Naga Mayor Kristine Vanessa Chiong rightly skirted the blame game when interviewed on radio while her people were sifting through the soil and rocks that slid on houses in Barangay Tinaan. There was a time for that later. The focus was on saving lives, if there were still lives to be saved, and on recovering the corpses of those buried in the landslide.
Tragedies like this, though, will eventually be subjected to investigations by concerned government agencies and lessons mined (pun not intended). But even before an investigating body could be formed and complete data are in, social media was already churning out information and shaping perception.
On Facebook, a document that tended to show where part of the blame for the local government units’ (LGU’s) seeming lack of foresight and preparation was circulated. But it would be wrong to pounce on that without first getting the side of officials of the government agency mentioned.
When Benigno Aquino III was president, the concept of disaster risk reduction and management already included mapping areas where hazards could be found. Landslide-prone areas, for example, were pinpointed to better guide LGUs in preparing for possible disasters. The question then was how LGUs used the available information for actual disaster risk reduction management.
The test came when super typhoon Yolanda struck the Visayas. Aside from the usual signals issued by Pagasa were warnings of storm surges released by the then newly established Project NOAH (Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards). Still, thousands died in Tacloban City because of the devastation brought about by storm surges.
What happened in Naga could be a reverse of what happened in Tacloban where available information wasn’t fully used as guide in disaster risk reduction management. Initial information seemed to show that the available information failed to lead to an adequate preparation for the landslide.
But that is but an initial perusal. Only after a thorough probe can the true lessons from the tragedy be learned. What is clear, however, is that this is another issue that mainly involves the relation between assessment of hazards and disaster risk reduction efforts.