USPian Chairperson presents paper in Australia

University of Southern Philippines Foundation's Department of Social Work chairperson and professor Mrs. Rosario Sequitin presented a paper on July 11, 2014 in an international conference held in Australia. An abstract of the paper presented is here posted:

Mrs. Rosario Sequitin presents the paper 

"Romancing the Storms: Local Government

Units' Managing Crisis Situations"

in Australia

Romancing the Storms: Local Government Units’ Managing Crisis Situations

Rosario E. Sequitin¹ and Hubert C. Zanoria²

¹University of Southern Philippines Foundation, Cebu City, Philippines

²Southwestern University, Cebu City, Philippines

The Philippines, according to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) has an average of nineteen (19) typhoons in a year. In 2012 TS Bopha (local name Pablo) hit the island of Mindanao in the Philippines on December 3, 2012 with winds of 185- 280 km/hr. It left 1,901 fatalities, 834 missing and $1.04 billion damage to properties. The following year, Typhoon Haiyan (local name Yolanda), one of the strongest storm so far recorded (Category 5 super typhoon) devastated the Visayas islands in the Philippines on November 8, 2013. It left US$ 2.86 billion in damages, 6,340 confirmed dead and 1,061 missing.

Mrs. Rosario Sequitin (2nd from left) poses with
fellow presenters and conference attendees.

The enactment of Republic Act No. 10121 in 2010 or the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management System Law established disaster response structures and mechanisms in every village, nonetheless, the country remains vulnerable, exposed, unprepared and most of the time unable to handle the enormity of a disaster’s wrath.

This is a comparative study of several post-disaster activities of Central and Southern Philippines covering selected municipalities and cities of these island groups. The aim is to show good practices and organizational limitations in community mobilization from a post-disaster activity and coming up with new approaches for more resilient communities.

It focused attention on how local government units (LGUs) were able to cope with these natural calamities.  It  discussed the their initiatives in addressing  the needs of the affected communities  after the disastrous events, specifically providing immediate post disaster recovery, and in rebuilding homes in safer areas identified by the local officials and people’s organizations.

USPian teacher alumnae Ms. Becca Labor Galon-Oplado
and Mrs. Rosario Sequitin meet in Melbourne, Australia.

The case studies documented LGUs’ and communities’ ability to cope due to their self- organization, proactive and preventive activities, and strong leadership.  Organizing community emergency response teams served as a machinery to reduce risks and hazards, at the same time ushered the promotion of active citizenship and volunteerism.

On the other hand, two cases also documented total breakdown of LGU’s systems which required the provincial and national government’s assumption of the recovery and rehabilitation efforts. 

The experiences highlighted the effects and lessons learned from either strong cooperation established among the community stakeholders, support institutions and the LGUs or polarization and putting political colors in addressing needs of its constituents.  The experience also led the communities to assess their own vulnerabilities as a community and how these can be further mitigated in the future.

*photos grabbed from Facebook and used in this article with permission from Mrs. Sequitin.