Rights and Wrongs

Philippine Authorities Struggle with Quake Aftermath       

Written by Our Correspondent    
Tuesday, 21 February 2012 
 

Maybe it's Mount Mayon's turn next

Once again, lack of disaster preparedness plagues the government

Once again in the wake of a Philippine disaster, authorities are belatedly struggling after the fact to determine the magnitude of the catastrophe and determine a course of action for the next one.

This is a country battered by a constant series of floods, fires, earthquakes, volcanoes and typhoons that authorities have not yet learned to cope with.

A powerful 6.9 magnitude earthquake flattened homes, twisted roads and killed at least 113 villagers on the island of Negros on Feb. 6, leaving authorities struggling to map out hidden earthquake faults to be able to respond better in the future.

Authorities indicated Monday that 52 bodies have been found and that they have lost hope of finding any survivors among the 61 people still missing.

Although the Philippines’ 7,000-odd islands lie on the so-called “ring of fire,” a 40,000-km horseshoe of fractures, oceanic trenches, volcanic arcs and belts and plate movements in the Pacific Basin, the country remains woefully unprepared for quakes and has done precious little mapping to find out where they are.

Tectonic forces are compressing the Philippines into what is called the Philippine Mobile Belt, a series of tectonic blocks and strips running north and south.

These plates have compressed and lifted parts of the country, causing extensive faulting and producing volcanoes like Mount Pinatubo, which cooked off in 1991, ejecting 10 cubic km. of magma and 20 million tons of sulphuric acid into the stratosphere, ultimately cutting global temperatures by 0.5C, more than any eruption since that of Krakatau in Indonesia in 1883.

However, the authorities so far have mapped out about a dozen of the faults.

Seismologists believe the quake was caused by the movement of a "blind fault line" - or a previously unknown fault line - under a narrow strait between Negros and the island of Cebu, catching disaster response officials by surprise.

The authorities said the destruction in the Feb. 6 quake was extensive because many residents in the Negros towns of Guihulngan and La Libertad had for years unknowingly lived in vulnerable areas on the sides of mountain and at the foot of the slopes where they farmed the fertile land.

The government said it is enhancing environmental funds to attempt to forestall natural disasters and to respond better.

As often is the case in Philippine disasters, authorities were uncoordinated, slow to attempt to help the distressed or find the missing, and unable to provide adequate medical and other care for the survivors.

"Many of the houses [were] made of light materials, not earthquake proof.

The bridges and roads were not as strongly built to withstand a powerful quake and many had for many years ignored warnings against living on the slopes because there had never been quakes in these areas," Benito Ramos, head of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, told IRIN, a news agency operated by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

"The Philvolcs [Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology] is now trying to locate and map these so-called blind faults after this quake," Ramos told IRIN.

Because many faults have been under-studied, entire communities had for years built residential areas over them.

Two other known faults are the Manila Bay and Manila Trench fault lines, which could lead to powerful destructions, according to the 2004 Metro Manila Earthquake Reduction Study in the capital city.

According to Pacific Strategies & Assessments, a Manila-based country risk assessment organization, 20 earthquakes are recorded every day in the Philippines, 200 of them of magnitude big enough to be felt.

According to the 2010 PSA report, “despite national assistance programs that have gained momentum over the course of the last several years, unreliable infrastructure systems, informal settlements in the form of slums and squatters in hazardous areas and a lack of government resources and coordination between national and local disaster management authorities are just some of the factors that plague the country’s natural disaster preparedness.”

"There is now a rush to map up all of these other so-called blind faults - or the small ones that were previously unknown," Ramos told IRIN, adding that Philvolcs has yet to determine how many there are.

The 2004 Metro Manila Earthquake Reduction Study concluded that a 7.2 magnitude earthquake resulting from the movement of the Manila Trench, for example, could kill as many as 50,000 people in Manila, the home of 12 million people, which rises to 14 million during working hours.

Such a quake would destroy a third of the public buildings and 13 percent of the residential buildings, rendering 1.2 million people homeless.

Metropolitan Manila Development Authority head Francis Tolentino said disaster response training for local officials covering the 17 districts was being improved, while much needed search and rescue equipment will be pre-positioned in areas critical to saving lives, like under bridges, for example.

"We need to train more volunteers for disaster response," said Tolentino.

"We will also train volunteers from the nearby regions, because if a quake strikes Manila, they will be the first responders.

We will also boost the number of container vans with emergency and rescue equipment like hydraulic tools and cutting and digging equipment, which we would preposition around Manila."

Ramos said the warnings are not meant to scare the public, but rather empower them in case of a major earthquake. "We don't want a repeat of Negros."

The disastrous state of public preparedness was exemplified by the government’s 2010 response to Typhoon Ondoy, known internationally as Typhoon Ketsana, which hovered over Manila for several days, plunging the city into a state of calamity from which it took months to recover.

The Philippines is hit by as many as 20 major typhoons each year.

(With reporting from IRIN, which says its reports do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations)
 

MANILA, Feb 21, 2012 (AFP) - An Islamic militant accused of beheading Philippine soldiers and a host of other attacks was arrested on Tuesday after he was taken by surprise in his remote island hideout, authorities said.

Security forces captured Abdulpattah Ismael, a member of the Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group, in a raid on a village on the strife-torn southern island of Basilan, said regional police chief Superintendent Napoleon Estilles.

"He did not resist. He was taken by surprise. He did not expect this so he did not have time to react," Estilles told AFP.

Ismael faces murder charges for allegedly taking part in an ambush on Basilan in 2007 in which 14 Marines were killed, 10 of whom were beheaded, in one of the deadliest attacks by the Abu Sayyaf on the Philippine military.

Estilles said Ismael also participated in a raid on a Basilan jail in 2009 that led to 31 inmates escaping, including Muslim militants, and the death of a guard.

The Abu Sayyaf is a small group of Islamic militants founded in the 1990s with seed money from Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

It has been blamed for the nation's worst terrorist attacks, including a ferry bombing in Manila in 2004 that killed more than 100 people.

Abu Sayyaf militants are based almost exclusively in remote and Muslim-populated areas of the southern Philippines, including Basilan island.

A rotating force of 600 US special forces have been stationed in the south for a decade to teach local troops how to deal with the Abu Sayyaf and other Muslim militant groups.

The Abu Sayyaf has only a few hundred militants left, down from about 2,000 a decade ago, according to the military and security analysts, and Philippine security forces regularly claim victories against the group.

The military said it bombed an Abu Sayyaf hideout on Jolo island, close to Basilan, at the start of this month, killing 15 militants including three senior leaders of the Abu Sayyaf and the allied Jemaah Islamiyah group.

But the Abu Sayyaf has remained an enduring security threat and is accused of regularly carrying out kidnappings for ransoms. Seven foreigners kidnapped in recent years in the south are believed to still be in captivity.

New low pressure area expected to enter PH in next 24 hours–Pagasa
By Frances Mangosing
INQUIRER.net
9:39 am | Tuesday, February 14th, 2012 

, Philippines — A new low pressure area is seen to enter the Philippine area of responsibility in the next 24 hours,  the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration said  Tuesday.

The LPA was seen 1,200 kilometers east southeast of Southern Mindanao, it added.

Meanwhile, the entire archipelago will experience mostly cloudy skies with scattered rainshowers and thunderstorms, the state weather bureau said.

Moderate to strong winds blowing from the east will prevail throughout the entire archipelago and the coastal waters will be moderate to rough, it also said.

Southeast Asia
     Feb 14, 2012  
   
 Russian wrinkle in the South China Sea

By Al Labita

MANILA - A recently concluded three-day port call by three Russian warships in Manila has sparked speculation that Moscow may be angling to wade into the intensifying Spratly Islands dispute in the South China Sea.

The warships, including the anti-submarine Admiral Panteleyev, came at a time two American destroyers - the USS Wayne E Meyer and the USS Chafee - dropped anchor off the coasts of Manila and Cebu, respectively.

The ships' presence coincided with renewed tensions between the Philippines and China over their conflicting claims to the

 
potentially oil-and-gas rich Spratlys. Four other Asian countries - Brunei, Taiwan, Malaysia and Vietnam - also lay claim to parts of the Spratlys and areas of the South China Sea that China has claimed as its own.

Philippine officials declined to link the docking of Russia's nuclear-armed vessels to its territorial row with China, claiming the visits were "routine".

Avoiding any reference to the Spratlys, the officials justified the docking as part of a bilateral agreement Manila and Moscow signed in December 2009.

That accord, seen as part of Moscow's rivalry with Washington for strategic influence in the Asia-Pacific region, called for an exchange of defense and military delegations between the two countries.

Under the accord, both sides also agreed to strengthen bilateral cooperation in tackling threats of terrorism, piracy, and transnational crimes.

"We have an existing memorandum of agreement between our Department of National Defense and the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation," Philippine Navy spokesperson Lt Col Omar Tonsay said when queried about the Russian ships' arrival.

A Russian envoy in Manila, Nikolay Kudashev, said, "I'm confident that the contacts between our navies reflect our countries' commitment to countering common challenges and threats."

Asked whether Moscow would play a role in easing tensions fueled by the Spratlys row, he said Moscow remained open to such a possibility.

 "Whenever you need our advice and experience, we will be most welcome to extend it," he told reporters at a Manila port following the arrival of the Russian battleships.

He later clarified that, as much as possible, Moscow would not interfere in the maritime dispute, noting that it is regional in nature.

 "Naturally, we would not like to interfere or to impose in any way our will upon China and the Philippines.

They are both our friends and partners," the Russian envoy said.

Those mixed messages are in sharp contrast with Washington's high-profile stance in the Spratlys dispute.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said at an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting in Hanoi last year that the US had a "national interest" in the area.

The next destination for the Russian warships, which came from the Gulf of Aden on a mission to protect ships from pirate attacks, was unknown when they left port.

Russian media on Sunday reported that they were due in Vladivostok that day, citing the fleet's spokesman. They had arrived in Manila on January 31 for the three-day visit.

Analysts said they would likely remain in the vicinity to monitor the upcoming "war games" between US and Philippine involving 1,500 American and Filipino marines.

For the first time in years, the joint military exercises will be held near the disputed Spratly islands, a move that could put US and Philippine forces perilously close to a naval confrontation with China.

Though China has not yet reacted to the latest Russian and US twists in its maritime row with the Philippines, some of its hawkish Politburo officials had earlier warned of resorting to force to enforce its "indisputable sovereign" claims to the potentially oil-rich chain of islands and other islets in the vast South China sea.

Manila officials, however, said the joint US maneuvers - set to last from March to April this year - will only take place within the Philippine-claimed areas of the Spratlys or within the country's 200-mile (321.8 kilometer) exclusive economic zone.

For the first time, too, the joint exercises will stage a new mode of amphibious training: how to defend and retake an oil and gas platform from imaginary enemies, or "terrorists."

China may feel alluded to by such a tag as its patrol vessels have frequently harassed prospecting foreign oil firms and Filipino fishermen in the west Philippine sea, prompting Manila to lodge diplomatic protests.

For instance, Dutch oil multinational Shell has existing drilling operations in Palawan province, particularly in Malampaya, west of Manila.

Last month, the company paid US$1.1 billion to the Philippine government in royalties, the bulk of which will apparently be used to bankroll the Armed Forces of the Philippines' (AFP) modernization program.

It is unclear if the presence of Russian ships in the area is linked to any future energy deals Moscow may hope to strike in the Philippines-claimed areas of the South China Sea.

Provocative games
The "war games" with Washington come amid talk that the US plans to ramp up its military presence in the Philippines, including the establishment of a naval outpost in the west Philippine sea to help the AFP ward off repeated intrusions by Chinese naval gunboats.

The outpost could house some of the 4,000 American marines the US plans to redeploy on a rotational basis from Okinawa, Japan, to Australia, Hawaii, Guam and the Philippines.

The redeployment, part of Washington's new defense strategy to shift focus from Iraq and Afghanistan to the Asia-Pacific vis-a-vis China's rise as a military power in the region, will be tackled in next month's high-level meeting of senior US and Philippine officials in Manila.

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are expected to attend the meeting with Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario and Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin.

US Assistant Secretary of State for Political and Military Affairs Andrew Shapiro has just ended his three-day visit to Manila to lay the groundwork for next month's meeting of American and Filipino foreign affairs and defense officials.

The upcoming meeting will discuss ways on how the US can beef up the Philippines' defense capability vis-a-vis China's aggressiveness in asserting its territorial claims to the Spratlys.

That could mean an expanded US military presence in the Philippines, a highly sensitive political issue after American bases at Subic and Clark were closed amid a wave of nationalism in 2000.

Some 600 US Special Forces troops are stationed in the Philippines, helping government security forces battle Islamic militants in strife-torn Mindanao.

Philippines officials have consistently ruled out the reestablishment of US bases, citing the country's constitution which bans the presence of foreign military installations. However, the sense of urgency for external defense amid China's perceived as expansionist tendencies has spurred Manila to turn to Washington for succor short of compromising the anti-bases provision of its laws.

In the second US-Philippines strategic dialogue held in Washington last month, Manila agreed to allow the US to raise the level of its security engagement, an offer which has drawn protests from nationalist and leftist groups.

In turn, Washington agreed to Manila's request for a second warship but has so far kept mum on the possible supply of F-16s and other modern armaments.

Similarly, the US also acceded to return the weapons system, communications equipment and other state-of-the art gear it stripped from the Hamilton-class naval cutter it turned over to the AFP late last year.

As with the first warship, the second one will be availed of by the Philippines under the US Foreign Military Sales Program, a component of the US-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty signed in 1951.

Given the paradigm shifts in US-Philippine defense cooperation, it is not surprising that Russia is suddenly flexing their naval muscle in the region.

And while Manila looks to Washington for strategic reassurance vis-à-vis Beijing, it has also kept its door open to Moscow and stirred further the South China Sea's troubled waters.

Al Labita is a Manila-based journalist.

(Copyright 2012 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)  
 
 

The Pacific's Imperiled Tuna Industry       

Written by Edwin Espejo    
Wednesday, 08 February 2012 
 

Filipino forces disagree on reopening migratory paths of the fish

In March, the commission that oversees the harvest of tuna in the vast reaches of the Pacific Ocean is to meet to decide whether to lift a two-year-old ban on fishing in one of the strategic migratory paths of the fish, which are declining in numbers as their value skyrockets.

The Pacific supports a tuna fishery worth US$1.8 billion annually that accounts for a third of global tuna catches.
A single 278 kg Bluefin caught in the waters off northern Japan in January fetched a record US$736,000.

The average price over the past 15 years for a single fish at the first Tokyo auction of the year was US$153,000, according to Bloomberg, although what comes in the StarKist can is obviously a lot lower-grade.

Conservationists warned in mid-2011 that five of the eight tuna species are at risk of extinction, with all three bluefin species – southern, Atlantic and Pacific – susceptible to collapse from overfishing.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature study said seven of the 61 species of so—called “scombrid” or billed fish, are under severe threat. In the early days of the Philippine industry, tuna were caught just a little over 100 meters from shore off Mindanao.

Today, the closest they can be found in volume is a good six hours from the coastal towns of Kiamba and Maasim.

On a bad day, three weeks in the open seas off Sarangani Bay will net a zero catch.

Although Filipino tuna fishermen say the ban in the area of the migratory path is costing them their livelihoods, Marfenio Tan, the former president of the Socsksargen Federation of Fishing and Allied Industry in General Santos City, said he favors a longer ban or even a total one on fishing in the two pockets, rather than a mere lifting of the ban, however, in an effort to allow the rapidly declining species to replenish their stocks.

Tan is supported by an American yellowfin tuna trader, John Heitz.

The two are calling for a moratorium on net and purse seine fishing as well as a moratorium on tuna fishing during spawning season or reducing vessel fishing days.

The seas off Palau, Micronesia, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia are areas closest to the Philippines where local tuna fishing companies frequently operate and further south west off the Solomon Islands, Fiji, Tuvalu, Nauru, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Papua New Guinea and parts of Kiribati.

Opponents of the ban, including General Santos City Councilor Ronnel Rivera, argue that the ban has had a direct impact on employment and the Philippine economy, especially in southern Mindanao.

The opponents say they aren’t pushing for the resumption of so-called super seiners, 70-meter giants that can land up to 200 metric tons in a single catch by settling a large circular net around the school of fish, then pursing the bottom together to capture them.

Those vessels are largely stationed in Papua New Guinea where two Filipino companies also own tuna separate canning plants.

“We cannot compete with the super seiners of countries like the US, Japan, Spain and others anyway,” Marfenio Tan said. Most Philippine fishing vessels are capable of catching up to 50 tons of tuna-like specie, mostly used as raw materials for canning.

Tan said there were 38 Philippine fishing vessels operating in these areas prior to the two-year ban that took effect starting in 2010.

The two-year ban cut total tuna landings at the General Santos City fishing port complex by 21 percent between 2010 and 2011.

But the volume of landings of mature yellowfin tuna has been declining steadily in any case from overfishing -- from 33,369 metric tons in 2007 to a mere 9,061.13 in 2011.

Today more than 90 percent of raw materials for the city’s six canning plants have been sourced from either abroad or from Manila.

Tan, during a recent game fishing expedition, said continuing the ban would allow uninterrupted migratory flow of the tuna species whose spawning grounds are believed to be in the Sulu and North Sulawesi (formerly Celebes Sea) seas.

Over the last five years, tuna industry players in the country have come to terms that unless serious conservation measures are instituted, the catch will continue to decline.

The ban, however, has compounded the increasing protectionist policies from nearby Indonesia, the traditional fishing grounds of Filipino tuna catchers, and the island countries of Papua New Guinea and Palau.

Also adding to the reduced volume of catches and landing is the high fuel costs which left many small tuna catching vessels grounded.

Immediately after the ban was announced, local tuna producers were forced to recall their fishing fleets.

Tan said, in order for the local tuna industry to be sustainable, the number of Philippine tuna fishing vessels should be reduced to not more than 50.

The Socsksargen Federation of Fishing and Allied Industry alone listed at least 160 fishing vessels in the area at the time of the ban.

“The government should set aside a budget for the decommissioning of some fishing vessels to caution the impact of reduced fishing vessels as well as drastic cut in industry employment as a result of such move,” Tan said.

He estimates that the government needs at least P1.2 billion (US$27.7 million) to address this measure.

“Anything that will help the local tuna industry become more sustainable,” said Tan, who three years ago sold his two fleets of super seiners because of increased production costs.

 A single medium-sized tuna fishing fleet consisting of mother boat, service and other auxiliary vessels including a set of 30 to 60 fish aggregating devices could cost up to P30 million (US$700,000).

With the Philippine seas south of Mindanao already over fished, local tuna producers have looked beyond the country’s fishing grounds for their operations. In the 1990s, local tuna producers began opening up fishing operations in Indonesia and in Papua New Guinea.

By the turn of the millennium, several Filipino companies had already put up canning plants in these countries known for their rich tuna fishing grounds.

As local tuna production began to decline, pressures from Filipino companies operating fishing grounds in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea for raw materials increased.

For a while, the industry sustained the six canning plants in the city which still operated 24/7.

 But since 2008, canning plants have cut production hours by a third, from three production shifts to just two and sometimes just once a day.

The declining catch had little impact on Filipino exporters of canned tuna who were able to set up plants in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

As early as two decades ago, industry players have seen a steady decline of domestic catch due to over fishing and over saturation of commercial fishing operations in Philippine seas.

But while production has declined, increased international prices of canned and processed tuna as well as fresh chilled yellowfin exports are keeping the Philippine tuna industry afloat.

Over the last five years, the annual export earnings of Philippine tuna are still within the range of US$280 million despite reduced production.

 Six years ago, before fuel costs skyrocketed worldwide, the average price of a box of skipjack was P600 (US$14 per 33-kilo box). In early February, it was US$48.

Despite the pall of gloom in the horizon, producers and fishermen are not counting out the Philippine tuna industry although Marfenio Tan says it definitely had already seen its better days.

Many who relied solely on tuna fishing went bankrupt when the 1997 Asian financial crisis hit the region, mostly fishing companies which obtained loans, some of them dollar denominated, to expand or to invest first time in the industry.

But for some, the crisis was also a time for windfall profits as exporters enjoyed the bonanza of the decline in the Philippine peso foreign exchange market.

Tan said of the 10 or so families who pioneered the industry in the late 60s and early 70s, only three are left.

During the stretch when the industry became the single top dollar earner commodity for Mindanao, several companies have also emerged, especially in the late 80s and early 90s.

But the industry is going full circle again following the 2008 global collapse of several financial institutions and renewed oil price crisis.

Tan, now ‘retired’ president of San Andres Fishing Industries, became big enough to be able to diversify long before the double whammy of crises hit the industry in the last two decades.

He said the crisis has affected his production but his other business interests outside the fishing industry insulated him.

Today Tan, along with the Riveras of the RD Fishing Group, is still one of the city’s biggest tuna producers as well as among the biggest businessmen in town.

 But he still yearns for what once were the glory days of the industry.

(Edwin Espejo blogs at Chronicles from Mindanao for Asian Correspondent, where portions of this originally appeared as a three-part series.)