BACOLOR, Pampanga – The effects of climate change which jolted the consciousness of Pinoys in the wake of Supertyphoon Yolanda and its aftermath have prompted Kapampangans in the private sector here to call for a comprehensive and integrated disaster plan and help raise funds for it.
In Wednesday’s recognition of this year’s Most Outstanding Kapampangan Awards (MOKA) at the King’s Royal Hotel Promenade here, Dr. Juliet Gopez-Cervantes challenged the private sector by making donations for disaster preparedness.
She brought the house down by pledging to donate P250,000 and another P250,000 from her relatives for a total of P500,000. When it was his turn at the podium, MOKA for Social Services awardee Wilfredo M. Tan, president- CEO of Hausland Development Corp., “accepted the challenged” and pitched in another P250,000 for a total of P750,000 as a private sector initiative for a disaster summit.
Other MOKA awardees pledged their time and support for “a worthy project.” During her keynote speech, Cervantes underscored the need for a strong disaster preparedness plan and response apparatus that should be in place in times of disaster and calamities.
“We are proud of Pampanga. We must build on that pride to help push Pampanga to even greater heights in all aspects of our lives,” Cervantes, a 2010 MOKA awardee, said as she began her keynote address. “Today, we are all painfully aware of the effects of many disasters that have befallen our country most especially the recent devastation of several provinces in eastern and western Visayas.
This brings to the fore our own vulnerabilities in Pampanga we have had our share of calamities and we must
expect that with climate change these will become worse and worse and become more often in the near future,” she continued.
“The experience of Leyte and Samar among others have taught us that we cannot depend on the national government alone to act fast in response to natural disasters; we must have our own very strong local disaster preparedness and response apparatus in place,” she said.
“If our governor agrees the private sector must now volunteer to be tapped by her and be actively involved in
the planning, organization and implementation of a comprehensive and integrated disaster plan and most especially to help raise funds for such a plan,” she added.
“We now know that the old conventional plans and strategies do not adequately work as proven by the experience in Leyte, Samar and other Visayan provinces. It is now time now to bring together provincial and local government leaders, business, educational, health care and civic groups as well as leading private professionals and experts to formulate a better plan a more comprehensive plan. All ideas – the logical, the practical, the crazy and the bizarre – should be placed and dissected on the table.
Both extremes of the pendulum should be looked at,” she added. Cervantes said every municipality must build
a strong and reinforced, multi-storey evacuation center which can withstand super typhoon winds and rampaging floodwaters. She also said hospital buildings should likewise be reinforced.
But Cervantes said all these will cost money. “Zillions of pesos,” she said. “But we can do these if we unite as one people, one Pampanga regardless of our political, business, civic or religious affiliation.”
Cervantes proposed that the private sector form a foundation or an organization of Kapampangans led by a person of the highest integrity and fund raising capability who actually lives in Pampanga and who can be trusted by the governor to raise funds and help the provincial and local governments build the said structures and implement wide ranging and ambitious but doable plans.
“Governor Pineda and our municipal mayors need our help and I challenge you to rise up for our dear province of Pampanga,” Cervantes said as the audience applauded her. “It is our hope that with the proven strong leadership of our Governor Pineda, Kapampangans the world over would respond positively to this fund raising effort to support this project,” she added.
For her part, Governor Lilia “Nanay Baby” Pineda accepted the challenge of Cervantes and vowed to make Pampanga the blueprint for disaster management. Pineda said climate change is stark reality that we all must realize.
“Kailangan maging example tamu karela uling ing Pampanga me Pinatubu ya. Bulkan ing kekatamu ing karela bagyu pero mibangun tamu (We need to set an example because Pampanga was devastated by the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo. We had volcanic eruption while they had a super typhoon but we were able to rise up again),” Pineda said.
