Aside from shelters, build regional warehouses to stock relief goods

I would like to comment on your editorial “Absolute minimum: permanent shelters” (12/26/21). Like in medicine, prevention is as important as the treatment or cure.

As stated in the editorial, permanent shelters resilient to calamities are a must in our communities. We are bombarded by at least 20-25 typhoons a year, along with floods, earthquakes, the occasional volcanic eruption, and other calamities. These may be aggravated by climate change and our geographical location. We cannot fool Mother Nature.

Professor Randy David also mentioned in a recent a column the guidelines from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau on geohazard mappings distributed to local government units (LGUs). Are these guidelines being followed when government buildings are built, from the specifications to the location? I hope that politics and corruption in public work projects are not involved, since bad construction is almost equivalent to death.

In addition to the permanent shelters needed in communities, I would suggest regional warehouses or “bodega” of emergency supplies like food, water, medicines, surgical dressings, clothes, blankets, etc., stocked fully and to be distributed during calamities by LGUs and religious and civic leaders. We have 17 regions across the country. These emergency supplies should be marked “Property of the Republic of the Philippines” so that the goods can’t be sold or used by politicians. Since they are pre-positioned on a regional basis, these supplies should be easy to move once needed.

IDA M. TIONGCO
Malate, Manila
[email protected]