Legarda Wants Eastern Visayas to be Model Region for Resilience

In commemoration of Supertyphoon Yolanda’s onslaught next month, Senator Loren Legarda has urged citizens of Eastern Visayas Region, which was greatly devastated by the storm, to work together in making the region a model for resilience.

“On November 8, we will commemorate the third anniversary of Yolanda. Let it be a lesson for us on how we can rise again after a disaster. Let it be a lesson for us to make disaster prevention and preparedness a way of life,” said Legarda, Chair of the Senate Committee on Climate Change and UN Global Champion for Resilience.

The Senator made the statement during the Regional Cooperative Conference on Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation on October 14 held in Palo, Leyte and organized by the PH Haiyan Advocacy Cooperative together with the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Region 8, and the Climate Change Commission (CCC).

Legarda, who is also Chair of the Senate Committee on Finance, announced that the country’s Climate Resilience Center will be built in Palo, Leyte. This has already been funded under the CCC’s 2016 budget and the land will be donated by the Provincial Government of Leyte located in the government center in Palo.

“The Climate Resilience Center will be a center for research and development. It will be a source of relevant information for disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation and mitigation and a venue to conduct information and education campaigns for resilience and sustainable development. The building itself will be a model for sustainable architecture,” she said.

Legarda explained that the building will employ green architectural design that would maximize the use of natural light and wind flow, provide for rainwater catchment system, use recycled materials and LED lights. It will also showcase all environmental laws and programs on sustainable living—ecological solid waste management, efficient energy and water use, planting and growing of trees and vegetable garden.

“The Eastern Visayas region should utilize information and research from the Climate Resilience Center and translate these into practice. The CCC will conduct LGU-based participatory governance workshop and each LGU will train their barangay officials, who will also train residents of their respective communities. Everybody will be a climate warrior and climate and disaster resilience will be a way of life for the whole community,” said Legarda.

“Let us reduce the risks in our communities and make them always prepared for natural hazards. This will be successful with the collaborative effort among the national government, LGUs, all sectors of society and the citizens. We should never bury the lessons we have learned from Yolanda. We should draw them out of our collective memory if only to pay homage to the survivors and the victims,” Legarda concluded.