By Virgilio C. Ventura
The Philippines is one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries, with regular exposure to floods, typhoons, landslides, earthquakes, volcanoes, and droughts. Disaster preparedness and resilience are crucial for protecting the well-being of the Filipino workforce. Disaster response management presupposes specific actions at different levels of human life e.g., psychological, social, political, economic, and spiritual.
Psychological:
Mental resilience of the Philippine labor sector is an important factor in disaster management. The impact of disasters on mental health can be significant since post-disaster behavior and related psychological symptoms are associated with work impairment. Providing mental health and material support to victims is a critical component of disaster recovery. Disasters that tend to cause the most serious psychological effects include those that happen without a warning and threatens personal safety.
Social:
Social resilience among the workforce is an important factor in disaster management. Social determinants such as trust, local knowledge, and Filipino cultural norm sensitivity on the part of corporate management as with the kind of material support that they extend to disaster victims can play a significant role in mental health and resilience after disasters. Nurturing social resilience involves a totality of assistance that ranges from addressing basic needs to creating a non-threatening or safe environment that integrates and applies national and local disaster risk reduction strategies that make use of verified data authentically sourced from disaster professionals and affected population.
Political:
Effective disaster governance requires collaboration between government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and community stakeholders. The Philippine government has developed strong coping mechanisms over their long history of experience with disasters. Yet, significant gaps remain in disaster management capacities across different regions of the Philippines and surprisingly little data are available referencing local levels of disaster resilience and preparedness.1/ Disaster governance is an emerging concept in the disaster research literature that is closely related to risk governance and environmental governance.2/
Economic:
Disasters can have a significant economic impact, particularly on low socio-economic status (SES) populations.3/ These populations may experience differences in risk perception and disaster preparedness, response, and recovery. Disaster risk reduction strategies and plans should consider the economic impact of disasters and aim to teach economic resilience. The Filipino workforce’s economic resilience is an important factor to consider in disaster response management.
Spiritual:
Another important factor in disaster response management is the Filipino workforce’s spiritual resilience. As a predominantly Catholic nation, the Philippines subscribes to religion as an important aspect of the personal and social life of many Filipinos. Studies have shown that spiritual and religious survival can have a positive impact on mental health and resilience post-disaster period.4/ Thus, it is important to consider the role of spirituality and religion in disaster management and provide resources and support to those who find comfort in their faith.
Finally, the psychological, social, political, economic, and spiritual aspects of disaster preparedness and resilience are all important factors to consider in disaster response management for Filipino workers. Integrating mental health and material support, building social relationships, effective disaster management, creating economic resilience, and reflecting an increasing appreciation for the role of spirituality and religion in the Filipino workforce in a disaster response operation (both local and national) are all important aspects of disaster preparedness and resilience. A deeper understanding and appreciation of the diverse aspects of disaster preparedness and resilience of the Filipino workforce in disaster response initiatives augurs well for better recovery outcomes. END
NOTES:
1/ Perceptions of Disaster Resilience and Preparedness in the Philippines.
https://reliefweb.int/report/philippines/perceptions-disaster-resilience-and-preparedness-philippines
2/ Mao W, Agyapong VIO (2021) The role of social determinants in mental health and resilience
after disasters: implications for public health policy and practice. Front Public Health
9:658528. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.658528 – DOI – PubMed – PMC
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8170026/
3/ Callueng, C., Aruta, J. J. B. R., Antazo, B. G., & Briones-Diato, A. (2020). Measurement and
antecedents of national resilience in Filipino adults during coronavirus crisis. Journal of
community psychology, 48(8), 2608–2624. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.22438
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7461071/
4/ Alcayna, T., Bollettino, V., Dy, P., & Vinck, P. (2016). Resilience and Disaster Trends in the
Philippines: Opportunities for National and Local Capacity Building. PLoS currents, 8,
ecurrents.dis.4a0bc960866e53bd6357ac135d740846. https://doi.org/10.1371/currents.dis.4a0bc960866e53bd6357ac135d740846
