Last Sunday, we joined several groups from Marikina to commemorate the unfortunate events of September 26, 2009. That day, Tropical Storm Ondoy (Ketsana) brought more than a month’s worth of rain across Luzon and inundated Metro Manila and adjoining cities and towns.

National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) figures showed that 464 people were killed, 529 were injured, and 37 remain unaccounted for in the tragedy. Around 16,000 families, or more than 70,000 people, lost their homes and were displaced by the massive floods. Not only that, it caused damages worth P2.6 billion to infrastructure and P6.7 billion to agriculture. These statistics become more real as you see mothers remembering their helplessness in watching their families drift away and losing their meager belongings to the floods. We recall the single dita tree where seven families sought refuge and were saved from the rushing waters. These residents, ranging from a 2-week-old baby to a 60-year-old, of Barangay Bagong Silangan in Quezon City clung to the 40-feet tree as flood waters rose. They stayed there from 10 in the morning of September 26 to 3 a.m. the next morning. The photo-archive site arkibongbayan.org said that “they [the residents] climbed down with the waters still waist-deep because they were cold and hungry for 17 hours.” Its moderator articulated the moral lesson quite clearly: “Don’t cut trees, they may save your life one day. [In this case, literally.]” They were the lucky ones: around 30 people from Barangay Bagong Silangan lost their lives to the floods.

We also recall the mobiliziation of relief efforts and the use of various ways to gather support from everyone. Among the groups mobilized include the Citizen’s Disaster Response Center, which activated its network of volunteers and immediately became a focal point for relief support. Local people’s organizations such as Anakpawis, Gabriela, Migrante and Bayan Muna mobilized their members to support their own communities. Even the cell phone consumer advocacy group TXTPower harnessed the Internet to gather support using Twitter, Facebook and other new media tools. Many of our overseas kababayan pitched in and gave their part.

Yet the fear that the same thing will happen again remains. It is not so much about worrying that the same threat will recur, as the Philippines unavoidably stands in the path of typhoons. Historically, we are in an area frequently hit by the strongest storms. I guess where the concern lies is in our government’s readiness to respond once the strong typhoons and the floods they bring come.

This concern still lingered when Typhoon Basyang raged across Metro Manila a few weeks into the new administration. In the wake of the destruction the typhoon caused, much blame was placed on Pagasa, which resulted in the President sacking its chief Prisco Nilo. In contrast, the NDCC admitted very little about its problems. It could have had prepared adjoining areas (including Metro Manila) for the typhoon, considering the margin of error that predicted storm paths can take. But this is also the same government unit that only appeared in the airwaves around 8 p.m. in September 26 last year.

Despite the new Disaster Risk Management Law (which renames the NDCC as the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, or NDRRMC), challenges remain. We have yet to see whether the provisions in this law become reality as actual funds are allocated to it. It will be lip service if the same Calamity Fund (now the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund) are used for purposes other than it is intended. It will be lip service if other conflicting laws and policies that erode the vulnerability of communities and destroy the environment remain. It will be lip service if the main determinant of our vulnerability will be the deep poverty that most of our people are in. Our country remains to be in one of the most disaster-prone regions in the world, and the frequent occurrence of floods, drought, landslides, earthquakes and typhoons have exacerbated existing social and economic dislocations.

Former Secretary General of the United Nations (UN) Kofi Annan said in a report to the UN General Assembly that “disasters are, to a great extent, determined by human action, or the lack of it.” He further noted that “the connection between disasters and inappropriate development models is well documented.” To a certain extent, the realization that whatever Ondoy brought to disaster preparedness is welcome, as it served as a wake-up call. However, we have to go beyond remembering and address the key economic and social issues that keep our people vulnerable to hazards and prone to disasters.