ON THE afternoon of August 8, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) announced that Tropical Depression Karding intensified into a tropical storm, and forecasted it to have maximum winds of up to 65 kilometers per hour and a gustiness of 80 kilometers per hour, up from the previous forecast of 60 kilometers per hour and 75 kilometers per hour, respectively. Additionally, the storm would strengthen the southwest monsoon or hanging habagat.
The Marikina City government monitored the Marikina River intently. At 2:00 PM during the tropical storm’s arrival on August 10, local authorities raised the alarm level to 2 after the river rose to 16 meters above sea level. Within three hours, the alarm level was raised to 3, prompting authorities to implement forced evacuation of residents in Marikina City. As evacuations were enforced by the local government, activist groups including Kadamay National and Akbayan Partylist started calling for donations on their respective Twitter accounts to help provide relief goods to the evacuees.
The Philippines greatly values the concept of bayanihan, or having a sense of community and going out of one’s way to help others in need. Manifestations of this distinctly Filipino custom are strongly felt immediately after typhoons strike the country, for instance, when resounding calls for relief operations and search rescues are heard throughout different social media platforms.
By August 11, Marikina City Mayor Marcelino Teodoro had informed radio DZMM that nearly 70% of the locality was already submerged in floodwater, reviving the public’s memories from Typhoon Ondoy. At 9:00 PM that night, the Philippine Star posted a tweet containing an image of a smiling man wading through the overflow, with a caption saying: “THE FILIPINO SPIRIT: A man submerged in floodwater in Marikina City manages to flash a smile despite his difficult situation. Filipinos are known for their resiliency especially since the country is hit by more than 20 typhoons every year.”
In response, netizens expressed their distaste for the media’s romanticization of Filipino resiliency for its potential to mislead people into assuming responsibility for their recovery without government aid.
Beyond culture
While the government and its people can work to improve current disaster mitigation programs, both parties may follow a process or set of processes otherwise known as an institution. Institutions find themselves entrenched in political theory as a process adopted by majority of a given population and comes to be a social obligation. Stephen Bell, political economy professor from the University of Queensland, observed that institutions matter because of the powerful role they have on the behavior of individuals. He takes the concept of an institution one step further through institutionalism. In his study on the topic, Bell defines institutionalism as a strand in political science which focuses on the ability of institutions to influence the behavior of political actors.
Furthermore, new institutionalism, a modified form of institutionalism, emphasizes the evaluation of the patterns and limits of the state. According to Bell, new institutionalism studies how interactions between or among multiple state and non-state actors are influenced by a specific institution.
In Marikina City’s battle against natural calamities, it can be interpreted that the state actor is the Marikina City government, while non-state actors are the residents and civilians of Marikina, and the institution that both actors follow is the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Plan (NDRRMP). The concept posits that institutions provide a framework for state and non-state actors to operate under. In this case, the actions of the local government unit and the residents are limited by what the NDRRMP allows.
Another theory called utilitarianism plays a role in disaster risk reduction. Introduced by Jeremy Bentham, the theory focuses on the “morality” of a policy or decision, albeit in a rather hedonistic perspective. Utilitarianism considers an act moral if it brings about the greatest amount of pleasure to the most amount of people, similar to the concept of the “common good,” while “pain” is minimized. As Bentham explains in his research, utilitarianism maintains the idea that actors act in pursuit of their self interests, which entail consequences in their interaction.
In Marikina’s case, the local government unit as the state actor is expected to use its expertise in providing efficient service to non-state actors. Following the theory’s logic, it is in the best interest of the residents of Marikina as the non-state actor to follow what the Marikina City government orders.
As both actors operate under a legislation, the maximization of “pleasure” is brought about by the safety of individuals, and the susceptibility of people to danger or “pain” is minimized. To reduce the “pain” of Marikina City’s residents, the local government unit ensures successful preparations by responding to the typhoon in three waves: providing relief goods for evacuees, spearheading rescue operations, and mitigating the damages left behind by Karding on infrastructure and roadworks.
The core principles of institutionalism and utilitarianism integrate into a third political theory called institutional utilitarianism. Patrick Croskery, a professor in philosophy from the Ohio Northern University, identified two practical problems in society through institutional utilitarianism. The first problem is that actors will always seek pleasure, while the second problem lies with actors who must make decisions with limited information. In order to resolve these problems, institutions would have to provide actors with sufficient information to achieve pleasure.
Shared responsibilities
In relation to Marikina’s vulnerability against natural calamities, institutional utilitarianism allows for further analysis of the socio-cultural dynamic at play during disaster response programs. Since both the Marikina City government and its residents strive for pleasure, both actors follow the institution that is the NDRRMP.
If both the local government and its residents worked flawlessly, then pleasure for both parties would solely depend on the effectiveness of the NDRRMP. However, as evidenced by the time it took for the Marikina City government to rehabilitate the damaged infrastructure and facilitate cleanups, there is room for improvement in regard to disaster response and mitigation. On the other hand, residents of Marikina have their responsibilities as well. When the city government starts to implement the protocols necessitated by the NDRRMP, residents are liable for responding to the instructions given to them.
Considering institutional utilitarianism’s framework, the interaction between both parties creates a bilateral movement supported by the NDRRMP. In the media’s tendency to romanticize Filipino resiliency, it may only destabilize the government and its people’s bilateral movement towards disaster mitigation. Since the media holds power in emphasizing the saliency of issues, it has a lot to learn from the institutional utilitarianism theory. Instead of limiting its focus on Filipino resilience, it could delve into the operations of the Marikina government and its people under the NDRRMP to bring amity to risk reduction in the Philippines.
