Let’s mobilize more aid for Haiti - Loren

IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE MAGNITUDE 7 EARTHQUAKE THAT HIT HAITI RECENTLY AND MAY HAVE CAUSED AS MANY AS 200,000 FATALITIES, SEN. LOREN LEGARDA TODAY APPEALED FOR MORE AID TO THE DISASTER-STRICKEN CENTRAL AMERICAN COUNTRY.

Loren, who is United Nations Champion for Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation in Asia-Pacific, said that Haiti “needs all the help it can get to rebuild lives and restore normalcy.”

Loren made the appeal as the Philippine government prepared to dispatch a 21-member medical team to help in rescue and relief operations in Haiti. The Philippines already has a peacekeeping contingent in the country as part of its obligations to the United Nations.

Haiti is among the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere and nearly a third of structures in the capital, Port-au-Prince, has been reported leveled to the ground, displacing hundreds of thousands of people.

“We must extend more humanitarian assistance to Haiti in the same way that the international community immediately sent aid to us when we were adversely affected by widespread flooding from typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng last year,” Loren said.

“This is more than compassion for other people in need. This is our obligation to the international community that has been very generous and unstinting in helping us whenever we face death and destruction from various natural disasters. The people of Haiti need help at this time and we should express our generosity in whatever way we can,” Loren said.

At the same time, Loren said, with the Philippines also vulnerable to destructive earthquakes as it lies along a major faultline, “now is the opportune time for government to review the structural soundness of all public and private infrastructure, particularly schools and hospitals, so that we can avoid the massive destruction that has taken place in Haiti.”

Haiti aftermath: Loren calls for safer buildings

SEN. LOREN LEGARDA TODAY CALLED ON THE GOVERNMENT TO PROTECT PUBLIC AND PRIVATE HOSPITALS AGAINST EARTHQUAKES IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE STRONG TEMBLOR THAT ROCKED HAITI AND CAUSED WIDESPREAD DEVASTATION AND LOSS OF LIVES IN THE CENTRAL AMERICA NATION.

“Hospitals and other health facilities are critical public infrastructures especially when disaster strikes and victims need emergency services and medical care. Therefore, they should be disaster-proof and disaster-resilient,” said Loren, the chairperson of the Senate committee on demography and health.

“The country should have learned lessons from the 1990 Luzon earthquake. We saw how the earthquake ruined the City of Baguio. We saw how Baguio General Hospital, along with other hospitals in nearby provinces, crumbled from its impact and failed to perform its role as a refuge and haven for the injured victims,” Loren said.

“Hospitals should not only be structurally sound but also capable of dealing with all types of disasters. Health facilities and all health workers able to function fully, efficiently, and effectively during emergencies,” Loren asserted.

Loren pointed out that based on international studies, disaster-proofing a hospital or health facility would add only 4 percent to the cost of construction. “This cost is nothing compared to the risk of destruction of infrastructure and property and death of patients and staff during a disaster, and the equally high health, economic and development impacts in the aftermath,” she said.

Building the resilience of the health sector to disasters, Loren said, “brings the double benefit of saving lives and achieving our development goals.” The national government, local governments and the private sector, who have invested much resources in the country’s health care system, should therefore share common responsibilities in running it.

Loren urged Congress to do its part in making the country’s health sector able to withstand any natural catastrophe. “The fiscal policies of government should also be geared towards helping private-run hospitals improve their structural integrity and their facilities. The government can grant tax incentives to hospitals that invest in risk reduction-related structures, equipment and facilities,” she said.

Loren also suggested that Congress revisit the National Building Code to determine whether there is a need to update its provisions to meet the requirements of effective disaster risk reduction.