Business, NGOs consolidate disaster initiatives

The country’s top conglomerates, top business groups and non-government organizations have teamed up to boost disaster initiatives, focusing on eight critical areas in the country.

The private sector is consolidating various initiatives under the Philippine Disaster Recovery Foundation (PDRF), co-chaired by Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. and Metro Pacific Investments chair Manuel V. Pangilinan, Ayala Corp. chair Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala and Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle.

The group will focus its activities on Northern Cebu, Northern Negros, Northern Panay, Leyte, Samar, Palawan, Bohol and Zamboanga City.

The goal is to consolidate efforts and organize private sector response to Supertyphoon “Yolanda” and other recent disasters as well as to prepare for future calamities.

PDRF will serve as a permanent private sector vehicle for disaster management covering preparedness, relief, recovery and reconstruction. It will serve as a major point of contact of the business community with the government, international aid agencies and the NGO community.

With regards to Supertyphoon Yolanda, PDRF has identified five key sectors for early recovery efforts: shelter, livelihood, education, environment and water/infrastructure/ sanitation/health.

“Recent events have highlighted the fact that the Philippines is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world. We must become much more adept at dealing with calamities—both natural and man-made. The private sector has an important role to play in making our country more resilient,” Pangilinan said in a statement.

PDRF president Rene Meily, in a briefing, said this was a “historic day” as major business groups in the country had decided to form the first disaster response body.

“We decided to work together, share information and resources both on current disasters and we also decided to work together for the future,” he said.

Other members of the PDRF board include: Erramon Aboitiz, president and chief executive officer of Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc.; Federico Lopez, chair of Energy Development Corp.; Edgar Chua, country chair of Shell companies in the Philippines; Doris Magsaysay Ho, president and CEO of Magsaysay Maritime Corp.; Gilda Pico, president of Landbank of the Philippines, and Ramon del Rosario Jr., president of the Philippine Investment Management Inc. (Phinma). Members of the PDRF advisory board include Rafael Lopa, executive director of the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) and Guillermo Luz, co-chair for the private sector of the National Competitiveness Council.

Tagle said the Church could also collaborate with PDRF by pooling funds and manpower support from its parishioners.

Luz said major conglomerates and business groups have come together in a “large coordinated and unified manner” to form a structure to deal with all sorts of natural disasters.

Magsaysay Ho emphasized the need to create sustainable organization for the long term. One of the tasks at hand, she said, would be to identify capacity, determine excess capacity and work to rally all levels of the organization. From the core group formed on Monday,

To date, PDRF has coordinated medical missions in Tacloban, distributed rice, tents, cellphones, satellite phones, built schools in Bohol, bought fishing boats for the fisherfolk and worked at providing extra classrooms to the Department of Education.

“We realize that disasters are a recurring part of the Philippine setting and we need to respond because each one affects many lives in addition to hurting our core businesses,” Lopa said.

“The business community’s first task, through PDRF, is to help re-boot the economy in disaster-affected areas and accelerate recovery through investments in both commercial operations and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects,”Luz said.

PDRF is in the process of creating a crisis response mapping facility to map out the ongoing commercial and CSR activities in the disaster areas. This aims to provide visibility on what has been accomplished and what still needs to be done and help determine how resources can be efficiently and effectively allocated. The mapping facility will also help in monitoring and auditing projects on the ground.