Disaster Risk Management Master Plan

(DRMMP) implementation in Metropolitan Manila

In partnership with

MMDA – PHIVOLCS and

Quezon, Makati and Marikina Cities

Field Trip Report - Summary

April 17-22, 2005

M IEE a r t h q u a k e s a n dM e g a cit ie s In it iat iv e

Page 2

Purpose of the Fieldtrip • To initiate discussions with the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and

other city stakeholders on a consensus draft work plan and the components of a DRMMP for Metro Manila, based on a 10-point framework proposed by the 3cd Team.

• To report back to the cities, particularly Makati and Quezon Cities, about the findings from

previous work carried out by the 3cd Team, especially on the Disaster Risk Management City Profile and compilation of Sound Practices.

• To invite the City of Marikina to become the third case study city as part of the 3cd

Program in Metro Manila. • To request and obtain commitments from the 3 cities in Metro Manila and other

institutions such as PHIVOLCS and MMDA to review and comment on the DRM city profile and sound practices compiled so far, as well as submit new ones.

• To promote the use of e-learning and on-line tools, such as the knowledge base and the

map viewer, as useful and efficient risk communication tools.

Background Metro Manila, a complex urban area that encompasses a population close to ten million distributed in 13 cities and 4 municipalities, is one of the three pilot cities in Asia where the 3cd Program is currently being implemented. Starting in July 2004, the Earthquake and Megacities Initiative (EMI) in cooperation with the Earthquake Disaster Mitigation Center (EdM) in Kobe, Japan, introduced its Cross-Cutting Capacity Development -3cd- Program, in the cities of Quezon and Makati. In January 2005, EMI and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority signed a cooperative agreement for the implementation of the 3cd Program in the capital region. In August 2004, initial fieldwork and a bi-city workshop were carried out with the participation of delegates from Makati City, Quezon City and MMDA that permitted understanding the current structures and framework for disaster risk management (DRM) in Metro Manila1 and identifyied several relevant DRM sound practices mainly aimed at reducing the impact of flooding and earthquakes. In November 2004, the Pacific Disaster Center, PDC, joined EMI in a collaborative effort to promote shifting the vision from response management to risk management and accelerating the process of implementating a Disaster Risk Management Master Plan (DRMMP) in Metropolitan Manila, by building on the significant work already accomplished by different national and international initiatives in this city. 1EMI-EdM, Metro Manila Philippines, Disaster Risk Management Profile, December 2004

Page 3

Given the previous work done by the Pacific Disaster Center through the multi-hazard urban risk assessment project for Marikina City and its guidelines for implementing a risk reduction strategy2, and the excellent relationship developed by those two organizations, it was suggested to invite Marikina to become part of the case-study cities under the 3cd Program. In this next phase, the 3cd Implementation Team, along with city officials and other interested stakeholders will look in detail at the main issues that have prevented the realization of the recommendations of different projects and will assist the cities and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) in structuring a comprehensive implementation plan that turns existing risk analysis studies into risk management instruments.

Resource Group The unique composition of the 3cd Team facilitates the progress of the different activities planned for the city. There is a mixture of skilled local and international professionals with different backgrounds who provide strong leadership and an enhanced vision by combining the local and global perspectives. The active and dedicated participation of the EMI secretariat based in Metro Manila, the local investigator PHIVOLCS represented by its director and his team, members of the Local Working Group who bring in their individual knowledge but also that from their organizations such as MMDA, the Universities and Professional Associations all have assisted during the fieldtrip organization or providing logistics, but most importantly, by guiding the team to better accomplish the objectives. EMI and its partners, the Pacific Disaster Center -PDC- based in Maui, and the Earthquake and Disaster Mitigation Center –EdM- of Kobe, provide partial financial support for the investigative and consultative work, as well as provide guidance for the research and implementation process.

Methodology Meetings, structured discussions, power point presentations, interviews and an evaluation questionnaire designed to get feedback from the participants were among the tools used during this field trip; details can be seen on the attached final agenda for the whole week activities. Individual meetings with the cities Each one of the three case-study cities engaged in the 3cd Program, Quezon, Makati and Marikina, has a different geographical setting, varies in size and population and has different characteristics in terms of its Disaster Risk Management Organization and Development.

2 PDC, Multi-hazard Urban Risk Assessment for Marikina City and guidelines for implementing multi-hazard risk reduction strategies, December 2004

Page 4

The following chart shows some of the most relevant characteristics of each one of these cities.

Quezon Makati Marikina Size 166.2 Km2 27.36 Km2 21.5 Km2 Population 2,390,688 est. 2005 471,379 c. 2000 437,000 in 2004 # Barangays 142 in four districts 33 in two districts 14 in two districts Pop. Growth 1.92% -0.5% City Revenues

Small to medium scale business Services provision Finished product distribution

Financial and Banking Sector Business & Commerce

Large Manufacturing Firms

Land Use 45.5% residential 38% residential Relevant Policy

Construction of major transport and infrastructure to reactivate the economy

DRM criteria is introduced in the city planning procedures

Tax incentive system to promote industrial sector investment

Related Programs

• Reducing Informal Settlers Programs

• Saving the Streams in QC (Sagip Batis)

• Barangay disaster brigades (South Triangle)

• Health Networking Program

• Medical Emergency Services

• Public-Private Safety Program

• Urban Renewal Program

• Home Along the Estero

• Review DM and Development Plans

• The Safety Program, 2004.

• A Comprehensive Land Use Plan, 2003;

• Long-Term Master Plan, 2003;

• Invest in Marikina Program, 2004

• The Flood Mitigation Strategy, 2004.

Holding individual city meetings or workshops is an approach that helps the 3cd team keep track of particular activities in the cities, promote documentation and exchange of sound practices and other inter-city cooperation instruments, achieve a closer contact with city officials, facilitate one-on-one discussions and address specific needs of the city. At the same time, the team looks for effective means to integrate those lessons in the megacity context of Metropolitan Manila. Therefore, a 1/2 session with the senior staff of both Quezon and Makati was hosted by each one of these cities on Tuesday, April 19 and Friday, April 22, respectively. One key objective was to report on the major findings from the August 2004 bi-city workshop held in Quezon and the current state of sound practice collection in Metro Manila and the other EMI cities engaged in the 3cd Program. On Monday, April 18, Marikina City was visited and invited to join the program, and at the same time city officials made a general presentation related to specific actions implemented in relationship to disaster risk management. Finally, the usefulness of the knowledge base and a map viewer for Metro Manila was also introduced in the discussion.

Page 5

The approach for the implementation of a comprehensive DRMMP and its expected process was also described in these meetings in order to get the participants’ reactions to this initiative. In each one of the cities, city officials received the 3cd Team and the mayors of the cities briefly joined the workshops as to show of their support to the project. Joint Workshop with MMDA and other Stakeholders On Wednesday, April 20 and Thursday, April 21, the authorities and staff of MMDA received the 3cd team, while representatives of the three above-mentioned cities, the Office of Civil Defense (OCD), PHIVOLCS and Professional Associations also participated in this meeting, which included 42 attendees. Concepts such as the mainstreaming model and the Disaster Risk Management Master Plan (DRMMP) tool were explained and discussed with the participants, along with a suggested 10-point framework prepared by the program director, Ms. Shirley Mattingly, for the purpose of this field trip. See attachments for details. Mainstreaming Model: Disaster reduction actions can actually take place with the involvement of all stakeholders if mitigation and preparedness are regularly included on the operations and functions carried out by the cities and municipalities. DRMMP: a tool to enable local governments to establish a process and to systematically and systemically implement a comprehensive Disaster Risk Management Agenda. 10-Point Framework: 3cd Team proposed a collective review of some of the key actions suggested by previous studies, particularly MMEIRS and its experience from other cities. Participants at this meeting were welcome to endorse, dismiss or change them, incorporating what, according to their understanding, is more relevant. The moderator walked the participants through each one of the 10 action items and promoted their discussion based on the following aspects: (1) Relevance and Viability, (2) Importance, (3) Resources and Constraints, (4) Implementation Process and (5) timeframe and Ownership; inquiries were also made related to current status and impediments for implementation. Once the 10 action items were discussed, participants were asked to rank them according to the priority given by the entire group.

Table No. 1

Ranking of the 10 action items

No.1. Strengthen Metropolitan Manila Disaster Coordinating Council (MMDCC)

10+

No.2. Promote Adoption of Disaster Management Ordinance by each City and Municipality

8

Page 6

No.3. Promote the reorganization and revitalization of city/municipal and Barangay Disaster Coordinating Councils

9

No.4. Institutionalize Local Government Framework and Financing for Disaster Management

6

No.5. Enhance lateral and vertical inter-agency and inter-governmental communication and coordination

7

No.6. Enhance legal basis for disaster Risk management at national level by updating/ replacing PD1566

10+

No.7. Promote policies that encourage implementation of DRR measures

4

No.8. Promote local government mitigation planning through use of existing planning tools

5

No.9. Conduct training needs assessment and develop capacity building programs

10±

No.10. Strengthen Barangay level preparedness for disaster response and relief

10±

Note: 10= most important; 1= least important 3cd Team Daily Monitoring and Evaluation Meetings Debrief sessions to evaluate the response and major findings of the day, as well as a short planning exercise for the next day’s activities were implemented as a means to facilitate coordination and focus on the specific groups that were addressed during this visit. Interviews Every possible opportunity was used to request the participants in the different meetings to read the DRM city profile and provide feedback, as well as request additional information regarding DRM sound practices, either to complete the existing ones or to add new ones. In this context one-on-one meetings were also scheduled with representatives of Quezon and Makati Cities and conducted by Antonio Fernandez-EdM (as a follow up from the field work done in December 2004), and in Marikina City by Jim Buika-PDC. Workshop Evaluation Participants in the MMDA’s full day discussion were asked to fill out the attached evaluation questionnaire to obtain their feedback in order to enhance future workshops. The participants were asked to use a 1 (NO, not at all satisfied) to 5 (YES, definitively satisfied) scale to grade the presentations, the discussions, their interest and knowledge of the topics, etc. Preliminary results of the evaluation forms show only a 36.5% (14 respondents from 41 attendees) return of the questionnaires but an overall evaluation close to a mean value of over 4. Antonio Fernandez-EdM Team 4 will provide final evaluation.

Page 7

Relevant Findings • Political will and advocacy at regional and local levels in Metro Manila. MMDA

authorities and the Mayors of each one of the case study cities showed their personal interest, and engagement in the project; which indicates a high level of concern and awareness for Disaster Risk Management organization and delivery in Metro Manila from high level policy makers. Hence, political willingness is a positive factor in the success of the 3cd Program and the successful implementation of the DRMMP Pilot Application in Metropolitan Manila. Nonetheless, it was also noted that additional awareness raising effort is needed to further educate policy makers and push the DRM agenda at all levels in Metro Manila. There is a high-level of commitment too from key stakeholders, as demonstrated by the efforts of the Local Investigator, PHIVOLCS, and the local team of advisors to the project. A more formal structuring of the local advisors was suggested.

• DRM efforts need a boost at the local level. According to OCD’s statistics (Ref. Frank

Castillo – OCD at the MMDA meeting), out of the 14 cities and 3 municipalities in Metro Manila, only eight count on active DRM offices, five of them have operational departments/sections/offices that count on legal support (i.e. an approved ordinance). From the 1645 barangays in Metro Manila, only 220 have a BDCC or similar organization.

• DRM efforts need stronger coordination at the metropolitan and national level. The

need to re-organize and strengthen the MMDCC as a key coordination agency was noted. Also a better organization of the coordination between state agencies, metropolitan agencies, and local agencies.

• A city-wide initiative to disseminate and explain the findings and recommendations

of the MMEIRS project have resulted in a better understanding of the risk. Through a combined effort, MMDA and PHIVOLCS have undertaken a sustained process of dissemination of the findings and tools (Local Government Handbook and Guidelines) generated through the MMEIRS project as means to provide guidelines and recommendations to Local Governments on how to implement and improve their DRM capacities in their localities; at present, only seven LGU’s remain to be briefed on the MMEIRS results. At the same time, PHIVOLCS and MMDA recommend to use a similar process to disseminate this information at the barangay level and use information technologies to provide a wider access, for example through the web pages of different local institutions. NDCC has been also briefed and updated about the MMEIRS recommendations; this has triggered the interest at the National level on DRM. The need to continue the awareness raising efforts and to find ways to develop ownership at all levels was considered to be an important task.

• Potential for support for development of Disaster-resistant communities in

Metropolitan Manila is sought. MMDA and JICA have put together a new proposal for the Government of Japan to develop the next phase of the MMEIRS Project, which will focus on developing community-based disaster management plans. It may take several months before a response to the proposal is provided.

Page 8

• The three pilot cities are proactively implementing and planning DRM practices.

o Marikina implements concrete DRM activities. Marikina is in the process of implementing some of the recommendations provided through the EqTap project and shows its interest to enhancing education and awareness among the kids and the community by establishing an interactive earthquake educational center and promoting the use of information technology to better communicating the risks. Relocation of illegal settlements has been a strong issue for the city, along with orientation programs to the home owners and business communities to better inform about the requirements of the building codes for new constructions, a matter of concern are the existing structures given the high cost of retrofitting measures.

o Quezon City is actively planning its DRM agenda. The City of Quezon

informed the 3cd team about a very successful economic exercise that allowed surplus to be used on reactivating the construction sector by redoing roads to concrete. Additional resources will be partially spent on improving the DRM capacity of the city. Also the city is putting in place some programs to reduce the informal settlements and requested to review and update the figures shown in the DRM city profile of Metropolitan Manila prepared by the 3cd Program.

o Makati City introduces DRM criteria in city planning procedures. The city of

Makati is currently engaged in a process to review its DRM system, they have felt the need for a special legislation to boost their efforts to reducing the effects of disaster since PD 1566 and Republic Act 8185 are too broad to provide the required legal support. A new ordinance is being promoted with the assistance of one of the City Chancellors. Hazards are being integrated into the Environmental Planning for the city, mainly those related to earthquakes, flooding and soil liquefaction. The city is interested in uploading the GIS maps produced by MMEIRS in their own GIS system for planning purposes.

• An opportunity exists to strengthen DRM training modules for Metro Manila. OCD

and PHIVOLCS are conducting some capacity building and training programs at the Barangay and school levels, in an effort to improve the BDCC’s capabilities and performance. There are some other initiatives trying to work along the same line, so the implementation of some mechanisms to standardize the training modules were suggested by the participants.

• Metro Manila DRM process can benefit from greater private sector involvement.

There is little participation of the private sector, NGO’s and professional associations in the DRM process in Metro Manila; therefore looking for means to meet their interest in joining these efforts could bring higher benefit to all; the reaching out process is a task that may be best undertaken by the local and regional organizations.

Page 9

Potential collaboration opportunities between the 3cd Program and Metro Manila.

While a detailed work plan is being developed, five potential areas of intervention for the 3cd Program seem to have emerged. They concern:

− Integration of risk factors in land use and urban planning − Implementation and enforcement of construction codes and standards − Training and DRM capacity building − Use of technology for risk communication − Social and welfare aspects including how to reduce population vulnerability,

alternatives to deal with informal settlements and enhance the health sector. Dr. Antonio Fernandez of EdM-Team 4 has taken the lead to process the information collected during the discussions and briefings and to further collect input from key stakeholders and the 3cd Team, with the goal of providing a draft workplan. This plan will be evaluated by the 3cd Implementation Team and reviewed by the 3cd Program Working Group. The outcome (An Initial Work Plan for Metro Manila) will be submitted to MMDA, the cities, the Local Investigator and the Local Advisory Group for review and comments. Based on this consultation process a Final Work Plan will be developed to define the 3cd program for Metro Manila.