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The Aftermath

of Yolanda:

A Case Study

Submitted by: Edward Vange P. Arriba

Submitted to: Prof. Allan Cledera

Date: January 18, 2014

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Last November 8, 2013, our country has made a history. A tragic history that the Philippines and

the rest of the world will never forget. It was last November 8, 2013 when the strongest tropical

cyclone on record to make landfall in world history landed Guiuan, Eastern Samar. It was the

start of the most tragic history that killed 6201 people, injured 28,626 individuals and 1,785

people reported missing up until this very moment.(1)

It was Typhoon Yolanda or Typhoon

Haiyan as renounced internationally that stunned the whole world with its extreme destruction to

some parts of the Philippines. Typhoon Yolandas massive size also left a big damage to almost

half of the demographics of the country. In accordance to NDRRMC, Typhoon Yolanda

damaged Regions IV-A, IV-B, V, VI, VII, VIII, and CARAGA garnering a total cost of damage

amounting to PhP36,690,882,497.27 with PhP18,336,576,627.39 for infrastructures and

PhP18,354,305,869.88 for agriculture . But Typhoon Yolandas trail was mostly centered on the

Eastern Visayas and most of its effects are concentrated to those parts of the country.

With an extremely strong maximum sustained winds plus continuous rains, agriculture sector

will surely be greatly affected. Knowing that Eastern Visayas is mainly an agricultural region

with rice and corn two of its major crops, a strong typhoon will surely ruin the agriculture

economy of the region. Luckily, Yolanda landed after the main harvest of the region thus, almost

all of the crops and corn were harvested prior to the landfall of Yolanda in their region thus

minimizing the effects of the super typhoon to the farm lands but still the country has a total

damage cost of 18 Billion pesos just in the agriculture sector alone. Some other effects of

Yolanda to the economy of the Philippines will be discussed by the researcher segregated in

accordance to most important sectors and topics in our Economy.

1 According to NDRRMC Update as of January 14, 2014

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Prices of Commodities

According to National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), Typhoon Yolandas

devastation and power hikes raised prices of basic commodities, pushing headline inflation to 4.1

percent in December 2013. The 4.1 inflation was greatly affected by the increase of food prices

in the economy that can be attributed to the devastation of Typhoon Yolanda. Food prices from

the affected regions of Typhoon Yolanda skyrocketed. This is because almost all of the

farmlands were destroyed completely by the Typhoon Yolanda. In Eastern Visayas (Region

VIII), prices of vegetables went up by 11.3 percent in December 2013 from 5.8 percent of

November 2013. While in Central Visayas (Region VII), prices of rice increased by 12.2 percent

from 9.4 percent, 11.2 percent from 7.8 percent for fruits, and 11.3 percent from 6.6 percent for

vegetables. Also, in Western Visayas (Region VI), vegetable prices surged by 11.8 percent from

2.3 percent in November 2013.(See in figure # 1)

Figure 1 (Comparative Figure: Inflation)

05

1015

Comparative Figure: Inflation

Nov-13

Devember 2013

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In the figure above, we can surely notice the difference between the inflation percentage

of November 2013 and December 2013. All the Inflation percentages increased in the month of

December. And almost all of the agricultural products inflation gradually increased during the

month of the devastation of Typhoon Yolanda. This because of the price freeze that was

implemented during that time and also because of the enough supply of agricultural products in

the region because almost all of the agricultural products were harvested prior to Yolanda. The

increase of inflation in December 2013 is because of the long term effect of having a frozen

agriculture sector because almost all of the farmlands were destroyed thus they cant have output

in the long run and even the destruction of roads and airports may possibly cause disruption in

the supply chain and fuel the increase in the inflation.

Effect to GDP

The impact of Yolanda to Visayas will surely make their economy stagnant and slack. This is

because almost all of the farm fields, offices and other things needed for economy to run were

destroyed by the Typhoon. Thus, the country expects a low economic productivity but not a zero

economic activity. This is an indication that the effect of the Typhoon Yolanda to the real GDP

of the country can be contained and is manageable.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo said that the effect of Typhoon

Yolanda to the real GDP of the Philippines will be minimal. This is because the remittances of

the OFW will be a counterweight to the effect of the typhoon to our countys GDP. Remittances

from our OFW will surely shield the economy from slowdown since remittances provide for

consumption spending. The remittance inflow in the Philippines during calamities and crises is

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counter cyclical. It means that during the times of calamities and crises, OFW tend to send more

money to their loved ones in the Philippines for their survival. Thus, the effect of Yolanda to the

GDP will be contained and minimized.

Figure 2: Effect of Yolanda to GDP

According to Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the areas devastated by Yolanda account for 12% to

13% of the economy. Since the economic activities of those areas will be slack, other

neighboring regions will surely have an increase of economic activities to cope up to the

economic activities that cannot be done by the Visayas Region. This means that the supply that

was provided before by Visayas will be supplied by other regions thus creating a zero sum game

in the economy. It means that all the economic losses in terms of the economic activities of the

affected regions are the gain of other regions.

Effect of Yolanda

OFW Remittances

Minimized Effect to Real GDP

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Agriculture and Food Security

Agriculture Sector was greatly affected by the Typhoon Yolanda. In accordance to NDRRMC,

the total damage of Typhoon Yolanda to the agriculture sector is amounting to

PhP18,354,305,869.88. United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

(OCHA) estimated that up to 450,000 farmers and fisher households were directly affected by

the typhoon and Nearly 5.6 million people require food assistance and support to prevent food

insecurity and restore agricultural and fishing livelihoods. The massive number of affected

farmers is because the area affected by Typhoon Yolandas main livelihood is agriculture.

NDRRMC also provided the breakdown of the cost of damage of Typhoon Yolanda. (See figure

3)

Figure 3: Breakdown of damages to Agriculture

42%

16%

32%

1%

9%

Breakdown of Damage to Agriculture

Crops (rice, corn other crops): Livestock:

Fisheries: Irrigation facilities:

Other agricultural infrastructure:

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In accordance to figure 3, it was stated that 42% of the total damage to agriculture came

from the crops. The strength of the typhoon Yolanda almost wiped out all the farm fields of

visayas. The effect was just minimized because almost all of the crops were harvested before

Yolanda has devastated the region. 32% of the total damage cost to agriculture came from the

Fisheries. This is because of the extreme flash floods in the region destroyed almost all of the

ponds and killed fishes in the region. 16% came from the livestock. 9% from other agricultural

structures and 1% came from the irrigations.

The effect of Yolanda will surely be felt for years. It has surely affected us Filipinos and as well

as other counties as well may it be economically, emotionally and spiritually. May this be a

lesson to each and everyone to prioritize the safety of each and everyone by putting up an

effective disaster risk management. I personally believe that the effect may have been minimized

if only we prepared for it properly. But at the end of the day, blaming people or pointing fingers

will benefit no one. We should stop blaming other people and start working as a country.

Yolanda opened a new chapter in our country. Yolanda taught us many things. At the end of the

day, we just have to learn from all the lessons given by our past shortcomings and make it as an

inspiration to be a better country and an economy.

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