“Resiliency is essentially the ability to absorb, resist, accommodate or adapt to, to transform our communities after a disaster and to recover from the effects of the hazard in a timely and efficient manner. It is a very big goal but doable.”
Thus said Department of Science and Technology Undersecretary Renato U. Solidum Jr. as he spoke before members of the Pampanga Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (PamCham) during its 63rd general membership meeting at the LausGroup Event Centre in this city last Tuesday, June 25.
Solidum, in his fifth engagement since 2000 with the now 633-strong member PamCham and other development stakeholders from Central and North Luzon, emphasized that disaster preparedness is the key to business resiliency.
“Pampanga is resilient. We are resilient. But this resiliency is just in spirit. And this spirit must be converted to flesh and real action. And what do need to do? We need to understand resiliency and the consequence of a resilient community,” he said.
If a community is resilient, he said, it will immediately recover after a disaster, learn from mistakes and be able to make it more resilient in time.
“That is your goal. And if there is a disaster, we need to recover as soon as possible so that we are able to potentially reduce the possible impacts of future disasters. You learn from past mistakes and you transform your community from being non-resilient to a resilient one. However, some communities recover very slowly so that when another disaster happens, they would again be affected. That is very common in the Philippines when a series of tropical cyclones would visit the country. Thus, you must transform your business and companies into resilient ones now,” he added.
Solidum stressed that whether it is in government - local or national - or in business, to operationalize resilience means observing three major codes.
“First, reduce various losses before hazards occur. Second, prepare so you can effectively and efficiently respond when the disaster happens. And third, recover timely and efficiently, learn from past mistakes and build better in the future,” he said.
Most of our focus would be on disaster response which is not a good strategic option, Solidum added.
“Reduce the possible impacts before the possible hazards occur so that the scale of our response and recovery would be minimal and fast,” he said.
“Going back to the April 22 earthquake, we need to strengthen our buildings and houses. Filipinos are good in helping others during disasters. But we need to change that strategy by paying it forward. Help communities, help fellow businesses. Help poor families. Strengthen their houses before the earthquake would occur so we will see less houses and churches collapse, and lesser supermarkets collapse. That’s the way to go. Build quake resistant houses and structures,” Solidum stressed.
“We need to establish a resilient government center like in Clark. In being resilient, we can all work together. We must not be portrayed as victims but victors over disasters,” he concluded. (JTD)