Long-term assistance pledged to typhoon ‘Sendong’ Victims thru MoU with Xavier, social housing agency
PEF sends P500,000 to CdO, Iligan relief centers
Xavier University of Cagayan de Oro, together with the government’s Social Housing Finance Corporation and the Peace and Equity Foundation, have pledged to cooperate in “rebuilding lives and establishing climate-smart sustainable communities” after disastrous floods displaced thousands of families in Northern Mindanao late last year.
A memorandum of understanding was signed among the three parties in Cagayan de Oro City last January 11. The Catholic and Jesuit academic community, represented by Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan, has offered five hectares in Lumbia, situated within the city, to be developed as a resettlement site.
SHFC will provide technical and financial resources to replicate the government’s Community Mortgage Program, an affordable and secure home ownership option for low-income Filipinos. PEF, on the other hand, will provide financing to help build homes, start income-earning activities and assist with community organizing.
Xavier, SHFC and PEF will be part of Management Committee that will oversee the rehabilitation program’s implementation. The Management Committee may also collaborate with national and local agencies, local political units and civil society to hasten the full development of the Lumbia resettlement area.
For PEF, the MoU signing caps an eventful month that had pulled the entire development sector towards Northern Mindanao. With little warning on the night of 16 December 2011, tropical storm Sendong dumped torrential rains that triggered flash floods in the region’s two major centers, uprooting entire villages and causing over a thousand human casualties.
Within 48 hours after the first floods hit Cagayan de Oro and Iligan cities, PEF made its presence felt on the ground. The foundation channeled P250,000 each to the Diocesan Social Action Center in Cagayan de Oro City and the National Confederation of Cooperatives (NATCCO) for their relief and evacuation efforts.
By coincidence, Cagayan de Oro Archbishop Antonio Ledesma happens to be the current chair of the PEF board of trustees. PEF came to the aid of NATCCO after several of its member coop’s farms and facilities got caught directly in Sendong’s path. Right before and after Christmas Day, PEF officers arrived at the scene to plan rehabilitation initiatives with local organizations, many of whom were victims themselves of the disaster.
The Philippines remains among the top 10 countries most highly prone to drought, floods and landslides that threaten 67% of its total land area. The country also has the largest number of internally displaced people in Southeast Asia due to human induced calamities, according to the International Organization for Migration.
“More calamities are likely to come this way due to climate change. We need to respond in a more integrated and systematic way—from relief and quick rehabilitation to sustainable solutions and disaster preparedness,” said PEF executive director Roberto Calingo. “Helping poor communities be more resilient to climate change is now a key element of our poverty-reduction efforts.”
PEF has had a history of assisting communities during some of the Philippines’ most serious catastrophes:
- In November 2004, it provided relief and psycho-social rehabilitation to families isolated by flash floods that swept mud and logs across Infanta, Real and General Nakar in Quezon province. PEF subsequently funded land use re-planning and community disaster mapping in the area.
- It assisted in rehabilitating upland farms destroyed by typhoon “Pepeng” in 2009 through P1.5 million in grants and loans extended to five community organizations in Benguet province.
- About 75 seaweed growers from five barangays in Sibunag, Guimaras province received a P500,000 loan to revive failing seaweed farms which had suffered from shifting climate conditions. A P50,000 grant also enabled the growers to learn disaster risk reduction (DRR) techniques.
- In partnership with Dutch development agency Catholic Organisation for Relief and Development Aid (Cordaid), it extended about P30 million in calamity loans to flood victims of “Ondoy” and “Pepeng” in 2009. Small entrepreneurs from Tatalon in Quezon City and Marikina City were given lifelines during their post-disaster liquidity problems and a chance to rebuild their homes and livelihood. PEF also funded relocation to resettlement areas in Laguna province.
- In 2009, the foundation supported DRR training for microenterprises under the Mindanao Partnership for Peace Program (MP3) to enable communities to deal with disaster hazards and climate change vulnerabilities. MP3, which now has a Climate Change Fund component, is also a joint project of PEF and Cordaid.