INTRODUCTION
The Philippines is considered as the second largest archipelago
next to Indonesia. It has more than 7,100 islands covering 291,179
km2 in the westernmost Pacific Ocean. Among other nations, the
country can be placed among the top priority hotspots for global
conservation due to its megadiversity (International, C. 2013.
Biological diversity in the Philippines. Retrieved from
http://www/eoearth.org/view/article/150648 on April 16, 2015). As a
matter of fact, the abundant bodies of water surrounding the
country provides extensive opportunities for international trade
and commerce and a source of marine resources for the
people(National Disaster Response Plan, June 2014). However, the
country is situated in the Pacific Rim which is an area exposed to
different naturally-occuring disasters (Capistrano, M. Natural
Disaster Reduction: National Disaster Response and International
Cooperation, Retrieved from www.adrcasia). Thus, the said bodies of
water serve as the birthing ground of hydro-meteorological hazards
such as caustic typhoons, monsoon causing landslides, flashfloods
and massive flooding. A series of destructive hydrological hazards
happened in 2012-2013 which affected over four million (4,000,000)
people and killed more than 10,000 people (National Disaster
Response Plan, June 2014). Aside from the mentioned
hydro-meteorological related hazards, the country also sits near
the Pacific Ring of Fire which causes periodic earthquakes due to
collision of plates. The occurrence of natural disasters in the
Philippines can be categorized as frequent, varied, and severe and
a combination causing the country to be attentive to disaster
reduction (Capistrano, M. Natural Disaster Reduction: National
Disaster Response and International Cooperation, Retrieved
fromwww.adrcasia). According to statistics, Philippines is the 3rd
most vulnerable to disaster risks and natural hazard, 10th most
vulnerable to climate-related disasters for the period 1991-2010,
and 5th most vulnerable country in terms of forecasted global sea
level rise. Moreover, there are about 20 average numbers of
typhoons with 6-9 landfalls occurring in the country per year.
Also, there are 23 active volcanoes and 26 potentially active
volcanoes which might pose seismic hazards during their eruption
(Retrieved from
http://www.gov.ph/government-information-during-natural-disasters
on ______ 2014). With the afore-mentioned calamities, billions of
people usually suffered due to loss of properties and most
seriously due to loss of lives. Thus, a need for something that
will aid in responding to these naturally-occuring disasters was
developed. It led to the preparation of the National Disaster
Response Plan (NDRP) under the Disaster Risk Reduction and
Management Capacity Enhancement Project (DRRM-CEP) of the Japan
International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for the Office of Civil
Defense (OCD),Government of the Republic of the Philippines. The
development of the NDRP as an official document that can be used by
all government agencies in times of disaster. NDRP serves as the
Philippine Governments response to hydro-meteorological hazards and
is the first per hazard typeof response plan concerning the
national level. This NDRP for hydro-meteorological hazards can be
revised and updated accordingly by the OCD and the Department of
Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) being the Sub-Agency for
Response.There are three disaster phases of the NDRP which include
Pre-Disaster, During Disaster, and Post Disaster. Aside from these
disaster phases, there are cross-cutting activities done by member
agencies in coordination with other agencies. These are early
warnings, rapid assessment, early recovery, post disaster needs
assessment and mobilization of resources. The same with Integrated
Water Resources Management (IWRM), NDRP is a holistic approach
towards achieving the most suitable plan in alleviating the effects
of disaster. It is true that occurrence of calamities is inevitable
but still a way on dealing with it must not be neglected. The
involvement of each agency in the NDRP is very essential in order
for the NDRP to work into place. Compliance with the assigned duty
to a specific agency entails a well-run NDRP. NDRP is regularly
updated through workshops and seminars conducted by the involved
agencies so as to ensure a timely way on combating the problems
that existed in the previous one. In that way, a problem that
happened in the past will not happen again.BODYObjectives of
NDRPThe NDRPs primary objective is to guarantee and efficient and
well-coordinated response to hazard causing calamities and
disasters by the National Government at all levels including its
instrumentalities by providing support assistance to all affected
areas or local government units. As stated under the Local
Government Code (RA 7160), all LGUs are mandated to prepare and
respond to all disasters or casualties that might happen within
their area of jurisdiction (NDRP, June 2014). The NDRP makes use of
full utilization of all available government resources,
non-government, INGOs and the private sector before seeking help
from higher entities. This is to promote self-reliance and mutual
help among involved agencies and sectors. The manner of response
that will be provided by the National Government is highly
dependent on the capacities and capabilities of the different
levels of the local government units (Province, City, and
Municipality) as well as involved agencies of the national
government. This is because it is a joint responsibility of the
national and local government. Their level of preparedness is a
dictating factor towards achieving high effectiveness of the plan
(NDRP, June 2014).
Legal Basis of NDRPNDRP was based on the National Disaster Risk
Reduction and Management Plan (NDRRMP) which satisfies the
requirement of RA No. 10121 of 2010. This is an act strengthening
The Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management System which
provides the legal basis for policies, plans and programs to deal
with disasters. The NDRRP covers the following thematic areas
(Miller,et.al, 2006):
1. Disaster Prevention and MitigationOccurrence of natural
disasters is inevitable. However, in the Mitigation Phase, the
severity of the said disaster can be reduced so as to minimize
losses and damages. For instance, the occurrence of natural
disasters such as floods and hurricanes cannot be prevented; events
that often result from these occurrences can be prevented and
mitigated. Steps taken and implementation controls prior to the
occurrence of the said disaster resulted to the prevention and
mitigation of the ensuing events.
2. Disaster Preparedness
Preparedness is all about setting everything in order before the
occurrence of disaster as set by the disaster recovery plan. There
are five general steps involved in preparedness and these are
enumerated as follows:a.) Identification of the threats and its
causes;b.) The way a company will function upon the strike of
disaster and knowing the possible critical and non-critical
areas;c.) Identification of suppliers and customers that need not
stop operation while ensuring that contact lists and communication
links fall into place;d.) Preparing for the unavailability of
supplies and business locations; ande.) Ensuring that every member
of the team (from management to employees) assumes and understands
their own responsibility;
3. Disaster ResponseEmergency Response includes immediate
actions taken in order to deal with a disaster or an emergency. In
this phase, the emergency itself should be addressed as well as the
problems it caused. The core of the emergency response is the
collaboration of different resources with corresponding
implementing procedures in order to achieve the immediate
organizational objective during a disaster. Saving lives and
ensuring safety of all affected personnel are the primary goals of
an emergency response. Proper safety equipment, evacuation plans
and linkages with safety authorities fall into place come along
with saving lives.
4. Disaster Rehabilitation and Recovery
Resume normal processing is the top most priority of the
Recovery phase. In here, normal is dependent on the processing
objectives as set in the disaster recovery plan. The severity of
the disaster usually dictates the possible operation of a certain
establishment or group. It is possible that an events operation
resumes within one week, one month or never at all after the
occurrence of the disaster. As an example, during Hurricane Andrew,
there was an advance plan executed by BellSouth and Cellular and
secured over 100 cell sites, and lined-up outside vendors prior to
the event resulting to a less severe impact of the event and
shortened recovery period (Blake, 1992). In addition, due to the
bad impact of disasters, the Department of Public Works and
Highways (DPWH) is guided by the principle, building back
better.
The stated thematic areas correspond to the structure of the
National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC).
In accordance with the law, the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) is
responsible for the formulation and implementation of the NDRRMP.
Further, the OCD ensures that the plan is strictly followed
concerning the physical framework, social, economic and
environmental plans of communities, cities, municipalities and
provinces are consistent with such plan. There exists a consistency
between the NDRRMP and the National Disaster Risk Reduction and
Management Framework (NDRRMF). NDRRMP serves as the guide in
disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM) to the country. On
the other hand, the NDDRMF envisions the country as safer,
adaptive, and disaster resilient Filipino communities towards
sustainable development. A paradigm shift from a reactive to
proactive DRRM was conveyed. In here, there was an increased
awareness of the people regardless of gender in understanding DRRM
(National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Plan, NDRRMP,
2011-2028).
NDRP in PerspectiveInsert Figure 1.1.The NDRP imposes the
necessary activities that must be executed during a disaster
response in order for the affected LGUs to assume their response
functions. Since NDRP is a collaboration of different government
agencies, included in its contents are the specific roles and
responsibilities of organizations/institutions during the
disaster/emergency phase of the disaster. Further discussion in the
details of actions is shown in Operations Protocol in the
succeeding part of the paper (NDRP,2014).The development of
coordination mechanisms and identification of activities in order
to achieve coherence in the implementation of the DRRM policies are
included in the mandate of the NDRRMC as specified in the PDRRM
Act. The Office of the Civil Defense (OCD) and the Department of
Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) are the agencies responsible
for the development and assurance of the implementation of national
standards in order to carry out disaster risk reduction programs
mentioned in the four thematic areas from data collection and
analysis, planning, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation.
The OCD is specified as the lead agency in facilitating
coordination, mobilizing resources for response and information
management including communications. Besides heading the Response
Cluster of the NDRRMC, DSWD is tasked to provide Technical
Assistance and Resource Augmentation (TARA) along Camp Coordination
and Management. Also, part of its duty is the proivison of Food and
Non-Food Items to the affected families. During the response phase
of disaster, other agencies aside from OCD and DSWD shall be
responsible for the response actions to be determined and defined
as national strategic policy. At this point in time, the inclusion
of Search, Rescue and Retrieval (SRR) and Management of the Dead
and the Missing (MDM) in the NDRP is one of the top most priority
actions taken within the abrupt period from 2011-2013 in the NDRRMP
2011-2028 (NDRP,2014).
Plan AssumptionsScenario BasedThe NDRP is drafted assuming a
worst-case scenario for each type of disaster. DSWD together with
eight (8) Response Clusters agreed on this approach since they
believe that a major disaster can cause billions of damages to
properties and can kill billions of people. Having the mindset of
the worst-case scenario, different government agencies in different
levels may it be national, regional or local will be prepared to
the most of their capacity and capability. Tiered ResponseAt the
National Government level, there are two approaches that can be
considered to know the type of response the NDRP is providing.
First, is for the augmentation to the operation of the affected
LGUs. In here, the response assistance coming from the national
government will be based on the Regional DRRMCs that have proven
their diminishing levels of capability and capacity in order to
provide assistance to their respective provinces, cities and
municipalities affected by disaster. Second, is for assumption of
functions of LGUs in providing response assistance to their
affected population. In here, there is assumption of the response
activities based on the fact that there is no information coming
from and going through the affected areas within 6-12 hours after
landfall of hydro-meteoroligical disaster. With this scenario, an
immediate deployment of Rapid Deployment Team/s (RDT) to conduct
Rapid Damage And Needs Assessment (RDANA) and Aerial Surveys and
installation of National Operation Center(s) or Hub(s) as needed
will be done by the National agencies through activation of their
own response team taking the initiative for disaster
response.Promotion of system accountability and command control is
exhibited in the tiered response as it adheres to the capacity and
capability of the LGUs in response to the needs of their
constituents during the time of disaster. The NDRP is built on the
following understanding: Each government agencies and
instrumentalities have their own respective Disaster Preparedness
Plans; Preparation and implementation of Local Disaster Risk
Reduction and Management Plans particularly preparedness activities
that are directly connected to response like prepositioning of key
assets and resources was performed by the Local Government Units
(LGUs); and The Cluster Approach to response has been cascaded to
all levels of government both national and local.The intensity of
response of the National/Regional agencies is proportional to the
severity and magnitude of the emergency. International Government
Organizations (INGOs), Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), (Civic
Society Organizations) CSOs and private organizations will mobilize
and respond quickly. A well-tested coordination system/structure
can be exhibited during the occurrence of most devastating
disasters wherein the full range of government response including
that of other organizations will be utilized depending on the
capacities required.In line with the provisions of RA 10121, the
jurisdictions of the different levels of the local government
system together with the mandates stated in the Local Government
Code must be acknowledged. Hence, activation of systems and
mechanisms put into place before a disaster or emergency including
the cluster coordination system, Emergency Operations Center (EOC)
and the Incident Command System (ICS) must be done. Concept of
Response System under the NDRP
