Forty-one days after the calamity, Ranaw Disaster Response and Rehabilitation Assistance Center (RDRRAC), Inc. in partnership with the Office of Vice Chancellor for Planning and Development (OVCPD) of MSU-IIT and Camp Coordination and Management conducted the Consultative Forum for the Internally Displaced Persons in the Minitheather, Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology, Iligan City on January 26, 2012. The activity gathered over a hundred and fifty IDPs all over Iligan City.

The consultative forum was aimed at providing a space for the IDPs to discuss among themselves their primary needs especially during the rehabilitation and consultation process. The organizers saw the necessity and importance in involving, forging partnership with them, and empowering them towards a comprehensive and sustainable development. Alongside this concern is also a provision of venue for dialogue between the City Government and IDPs so that they could express their sentiments and self-determined needs to the government. International NGOs were also invited since they are also important actors and actresses in the rehabilitation and recovery process.

The activity started with two general forums from United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Mr. Cliff Alvarico from UNHCR enlightened the participants about the Guiding Principles in Internal Displacement and Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Rights. Ms. Gemma Dalena also shared UNDP’s Views about the Problem and the Durable Solutions. Also present were representatives from the City Social Welfare and Development and Human Resource Management Office in Iligan City.

During the afternoon, the IDPs were divided into eight groups to validate and to finalize the results of the previous Focus Group Discussions that were conducted to home-based and IDPs inside evacuation centers. Among others, the most important needs common to these groups were relocation, housing, and livelihood. Most importantly, they also emphasized the need to organize and form a city-wide organization which will push their demands and represent them in any gathering and activity related to the process of rehabilitation and recovery. All these concerns were presented by the reporters each group chose.

City Councilor and Camp Coordination and Management Head Mr. Frederick Siao presented the situation and some reported cases of sexually related violence in every evacuation centers. City Administrator Orlando Maglinao also arrived and presented to the group the proposed plan to disaster response in the city. After their presentation, series of questions from Sendong survivors flowed.

At the end, the survivors pledged and committed to attend and participate to activities and decisions concerning them and their future.

And for all of these, Ranaw Disaster Response and Rehabilitation Assistance Center, Inc. alongside its veritable and service-oriented partners will never cease to help empower the IDPs in reclaiming their rights, restoring their dignity, and rebuilding their lives!

RDRRAC

* Posted by RDRRAC on January 27, 2012

DA Sec Alcala addresses food-related disaster woes

03 FEB. Iligan City- More than a month after typhoon Sendong (Washi) hit the city, the Philippine Department of Agriculture finally addresses the plight of farmers and fisherfolks whose primary source of livelihood was gravely-devastated by the calamity.

Secretary Prospero J. Alcala together with regional director and local government officials met with the Alliance of Sustainable Agriculture Practitioners (ASAP), a convergence of among non-government organizations and peoples organizations in Iligan City, Lanao Del Norte, and Misamis Occidental on February 2, 2011 at the MSU-IIT Cooperative function hall and discussed the possible engagement with the Department of Agriculture in the implementation of the Rehabilitation Program to Sendong (Washi)-affected agricultural sector in hinterlands and coastal areas of Iligan City.

ASAP presented their identified subjects for future engagements as farm tools and equipment assistance; technology assistancein diversified integrated farming system, post-harvest handling technology and marketing; farm inputs; livestock and poultry replacement; aqua- fisheries support; comprehensive agro-forestry and watershed management; and clearing and repair of access roads to sixteen agricultural areas in the hinterlands as well as in the coasts. These areas include but not limited to the barangays of Mandulog, Lanipao, Dulag, Panoroganan, Kalilangan, Mainit, Rogongon, Digkilaan, Bonbonon, Tipanoy, Abuno, Pugaan, Santiago, Hinaplanon, Sta. Felomina, and Tambacan. ASAP members already initiated immediate response to the needs of the farmers in some of these areas but financial constraints limited the group’s intervention.

To which, the secretary assured his department’s support and cooperation in bringing about rehabilitation mechanisms to ensure the early as well as sustainable recovery of the city’s agricultural areas and sectors. A public-private-CSO partnership is on the wrap with a planning meeting that will be held on February 3, 2011 with the Department of Agriculture and the Alliance of Sustainable Agriculture Practitioners. Meanwhile, the Secretary urged the civil society organizations to continue being the watchdogs on logging, mining as well as other environmentally-destructive activities for the mitigation of climate change that has equally devastating effects to the sustainable agriculture productivity as well as national development.

The forum on agriculture rehabilitation plan was mainly facilitated by the Pailig Development Foundation, Inc. with the support of other ASAP members like the Ranaw Disaster Response and Rehabilitation Assistance Center (RDRRAC, Inc.), Sumpay Mindanao, Inc., Panaghugpong sa mga Mag-uuma ug Kabus sa Kabanikanhan alang sa Kausaban, Inc.(PASAKA), Kalipunan ng mga Maliliit na Magniniyog sa Pilipinas (KAMMPIL), Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Federation of Misamis Occidental (CAFEMO), Barangay Inagongan Farmers Association (BIFA), Iligan City Agri-Fisheries Council (ICAFC), Social Action Center (Iligan), Lanao Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (LAHRA), and Ecosystems Work for Essential Benefits, Inc. (ECOWEB).

Matet Norbe, DUYOG Iligan-RDRRAC

* Posted by RDRRAC on February 3, 2012