Post disaster social capital: trust equity, bayanihan and Typhoon Yolanda

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of disaster rehabilitation interventions on bonding social capital in the aftermath of Typhoon Yolanda. Design/methodology/approach: The data from the project is drawn from eight barangays in Tacloban City, the Philippines. Local residents and politicians were surveyed and interviewed to examine perceptions of resilience and community self-help. Findings: The evidence shows that haphazard or inequitable distribution of relief goods and services generated discontent within communities. However, whilst perceptions of community cooperation and self-help are relatively low, perceptions of resilience are relatively high. Research limitations/implications: This research was conducted in urban communities after a sudden large-scale disaster. The findings are not necessarily applicable in the rural context or in relation to slow onset disasters. Practical implications: Relief agencies should think more carefully about the social impact of the distribution of relief goods and services. Inequality can undermine community level cooperation. Social implications: A better consideration of social as well as material capital in the aftermath of disaster could help community self-help, resilience and positive adaptation. Originality/value: This study draws on evidence from local communities to contradict the overarching rhetoric of resilience in the aftermath of Typhoon Yolanda

Gathering 'Good' Qualitative Data in Local Communities Post Typhoon Yolanda: Power, Conversation and Negotiated Memory (Working Paper IV)

This working paper is the fourth in a series run by the ESRC/DFID funded project ‘Poverty Alleviation in the Wake of Typhoon Yolanda’. This project monitors the effectiveness of the Typhoon Yolanda relief efforts in the Philippines in relation to building sustainable routes out of poverty. The project focuses on urban population risk, vulnerability to disasters and resilience in the aftermath of shocks such as Typhoon Yolanda. The key themes of the project are vulnerability, risk and resilience in relation to disasters and pathways in and out of poverty. Our work investigates post-disaster reconstruction efforts, specifically within densely populated coastal urban areas. These communities are amongst the most at risk and yet least able to resurrect themselves after disasters. Impoverished communities are often constructed in hazardous locations that are vulnerable to disasters. The poor are exposed to a greater degree of environmental exposure than the rich and ‘poor people are experiencing more disasters than non-poor people’. A lack of land and resources, in states with varying degrees of wealth, dictates that the poor are most often located wherever they can find security of tenure, no matter how tenuous this might be, and where they can access material and social resources. Those living in coastal zones or other flood prone areas are most at risk from any climate-change induced severity such as storms or other extreme weather events.ESRC-DFI

Legislating for terrorism: the Philippines’ Human Security Act 2007

In February 2007 the Philippine Senate passed the Human Security Act (HSA) otherwise known as Republic Act No. 9372: An Act to Secure the State and Protect our People From Terrorism. Philippine Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel Jr. was heavily involved in the final drafting of the HSA. He gave it its final name shortly before the Senate Chamber passed it into law. Previously the Act had been known by various titles including ‘An Act to Deter and Punish Acts of Terrorism and for Other Purposes’ (Senate Bill No. 2137) and ‘An Act to Define and Punish the Crime of Terrorism, the Crime of Conspiracy to Commit Terrorism, and the Crime of Proposal to Commit Terrorism, and for Other Purposes (Senate Bill No. 2187). Thus the Human Security Act exists as an instrument of counter terrorism as opposed to human security policy.Publisher PD