Reopen for business

Open for business!

That is the new thinking in big business in the aftermath of Supertyphoon “Yolanda.” Most big companies just proved that the best way for corporations to respond to major calamities would be … well, for them to resume operations as quickly as possible. Reopen for business, in a way.

It is in fact the philosophy being pushed by the private sector organization called CNDR, or Corporate Network for Disaster Response, made up of companies that have no disaster response systems of their own.

CNDR now points at the chaos left behind by Yolanda as proof that corporate services must resume immediately, particularly the public utility companies, such as the power generators and distributors, the telecommunications companies, airlines and other transport companies, and most importantly, banks. It seems that CNDR believes that the public, whether victims or relatives of victims, would need their services the most in times of calamities.

From what I gathered, for instance, the top executives of NGCP, or National Grid Corp. of the Philippines, worked day and night—rotating on 12-hour shifts—to oversee the restoration of power service in the Visayas. In just a few days, NGCP was able to restore power in Ormoc City and several towns in Iloilo.

Of course the national flag carrier Philippine Airlines was in the frontline of the corporate response to the destructive Yolanda, the first to respond to the disaster in the Visayas.

According to PAL insiders, the company is still getting requests for “free” transportation of relief goods until today, a humanitarian service started by PAL just two days after Yolanda, or as soon as the airport in Tacloban, Leyte, became partially operational.

In fact, the cargo service of PAL Express (the budget airline of PAL formerly known as Air Philippines) is now hampered by a major backlog, forcing it to stop accepting shipments in the meantime.

Indeed, PAL transported to Tacloban a good number of doctors and members of relief missions, including government personnel who would assess the damage done by the supertyphoon.

PAL was the first and only commercial airline that dared to fly to the devastated city. In a way, Tacloban became missionary route for the flag carrier.

To me, when it comes to crunch time, we can truly separate the national flag carrier from the other commercial airlines. Just imagine how much more chaotic things would have been in the relief and rescue operations in the Visayas had PAL refused to risk flying its multimillion-dollar aircraft, what with reports of rioting and looting there.

Anyway, PAL started to operate six flights a day to Tacloban, airlifting paying passengers, of course. But it also flew “for free” medical doctors, rescue personnel and security forces—not to mention relief goods.

As soon as PAL received the go signal from the authorities, the airline changed the aircraft it used on the Manila-Tacloban route to the larger Airbus A320, thus enabling PAL to bring into the devastated city more response teams.

From what I gathered, less than two weeks after Yolanda, PAL was already able to transport more than 200,000 kilos of relief goods—for free—coming from the United Nations World Food Program and the Philippine National Red Cross, among others.

It has also transported more than a hundred doctors and medical practitioners.

As for the banking system, among the first to reopen for business in Tacloban was Security Bank, which resumed full operations last week. The bank even announced to its clients that it would waive the usual ATM fees in Tacloban and Ormoc.

Normally, banks charge clients for inter-branch ATM deposit and withdrawal. Security Bank perhaps thought that clients in Manila, for instance, would want to send money to their relatives in the Visayas. The bank decided to waive the charges.

The bank announced that branches in Central Visayas, also heavily affected by Yolanda, were fully operational, including those in Ormoc, Tagbilaran (Bohol), Roxas City (Capiz), Cebu City and Mandaue (Cebu), Dumaguete (Negros Oriental), Bacolod (Negros Occidental), Iloilo City (Iloilo), Catarman (Samar), Puerto Princesa (Palawan) and Calapan (Mindoro).

In the real estate sector, a company called Century Properties, founded by former Ambassador Jose Antonio, decided that it would concentrate on the rehabilitation of the devastated area, and not much on the distribution of relief goods. In fact, the company and its employees decided to cancel their Christmas party and set aside the funds for the construction of houses for the victims in the Visayas.

According to Antonio, his contacts abroad—such as those in the Rockefeller Foundation—already indicated support for his plan to build thousands of houses in the affected areas.

But still another idea is starting to take shape in the business sector as the long-term response to this killer called Yolanda: It is time for businesses to think “green.”

For instance, only a couple of construction projects in the country obtained this certification called LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, started in the United States that, through the years, evolved as the world standard in “green” construction projects.

The only LEED-certified school project in the country is the pioneering design proposed by Multiple Intelligence International School (MIIS), which is trying to build a school in the Katipunan area in Quezon City.

From what I gathered, the MIIS Green School project boasts of an education model that adds into the curriculum “environment education,” in which the students actually become “sustainability officers” in their classrooms, homes and communities. The students are made to practice “green” living everyday by reducing their carbon footprint, using eco-friendly materials and protecting the ecosystem. In a way, the students grow up with a “green” awareness.

According to the MIIS proponents, the model would then be extended to public schools.

The proponents also claimed that they would be using high-tech wastewater treatment systems to save up on the precious resource from the MWSS. The system calls for rain gardens, underground rain water storage, and permeable walkways to collect rainwater.

The school development may also block noise and air pollution through a network of wind catchers and cooling technology, filtering polluted air from Katipunan Avenue, releasing it as “fresh” air to the school campus and even the surrounding areas.

According to its proponents, MIIS Green School is to be equipped with a traffic management system used in developed countries, such as multilevel floors for drop-off and pick-up of passengers, or campus roads designed for smooth traffic flows, or parking slots much more than the minimum requirement under the National Building Code.

The bad news is, however, certain members of Blue Ridge A Resident Association (BRARA) are already fighting the LEED-certified project, although in the future all construction projects should have similar certifications.

Those BRARA members were against the project because of the additional traffic it would create in the Katipunan area.

For its part, MIIS Green School said that its LEED-certified master plan already addressed the traffic concerns of the residents in the area, which perhaps escaped the attention of those trying to stop the project.

The last I heard was that the proponents and the opposing residents are going on a “consultation” with the Quezon City hall.