Families, barangays more prepared than government vs typhoons, floodings

FAMILIES and barangays are more prepared than national governments against typhoons and flooding, according to an online survey on disaster preparedness.

Based on survey results on “Statistically Speaking,” former National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) Secretary- General Romulo A. Virola said, however, that the municipality/city government and the national government are best prepared against fire.

The survey was conducted to measure the level of preparedness of online respondents to all disasters— fire, earthquake, typhoons/flooding, and bombings/terrorist attacks and across statistical units: the family, barangay, municipality/city government and national government.

“The average level of preparedness across all disasters and across all statistical units is less than 60 percent [rating given is less than 6 out of 10]. If this is indicative of the actual situation, surely the NDRRMC [National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council] and the LGU [local government unit] top officials ought to do something,” Virola said.

Of all disasters, Virola said, the level of preparedness of online respondents against bombings/terrorist attacks is lowest with average levels below 40 percent and modal rating of 0 or “Very Unprepared” across all statistical units.

Data also showed that at least 5 percent of the respondents did not know the level of preparedness against bombings/terrorist attacks also across all statistical units.

Virola said the modal rating given by respondents is generally 5, except against bombings/terrorist and against fire for which the respondents gave a modal rating of 7 for the municipality/city government and tied modal ratings of 5 and 8 for the national government.

“This should alert the NDRRMC as to what intervention programs may be needed,” Virola said. “But this makes me wonder if in fact, the NDRRMC and the LGUS have done anything significant at all to motivate our kababayan [compatriot] to prepare better for major disasters?”

The survey drew a total of 119 responses over 29 days from August 18 to September 15, 2020. The survey asked the question “At this point in time and on a scale of 0 to 10, how would you rate the preparedness of [family, barangay, municipality/city, national government] in case of a major disaster.”

Data showed that close to 7 out of 10 respondents or 70.3 percent are female and no one from the LGBTQ+ community responded. Almost 9 out of 10 respondents or 86.6 percent are below 65 years old and less than 30 percent of the samples were Millennials.

More than 9 out of 10 or 95.7 percent of respondents have at least a four-year college degree with a high 63.2 percent having at least a Master’s degree.

At least 8 out of 10 respondents or 85.7 percent have income much higher than the per-capita poverty threshold of P2,246.40 per month for 2020.