That essentially was the promise of SM Prime Holdings president Hans Sy at the Top Leaders Forum 2013 that gathered all top businessmen across different industries to discuss the ramifications of global warming and climate change, and how the private sector can increase resilience. SM is building a SaveMore branch in Tacloban right in front of Gaisano Mall (the department store looted by survivors) and those in the know tell us it would be easier for the conglomerate to just cut its losses and write off the project. Apparently, the SM Group is not about to throw in the towel and may even expand. That’s very reassuring since economic activity has to be revived to create jobs and make it easier for things to return to “normal” (or at least a semblance of it, especially for children who survived the onslaught).

Businesses have been stepping up to the plate, utilizing their resources to augment the efforts of government (and boy, do our top officials need help!). Damage to agriculture and infrastructure is placed at P24.5 billion—and a big number of the buildings that have been wrecked are schools, about 4,500 if we are not mistaken. That certainly sets back the Department of Education’s efforts to solve the perennial problem of classroom/school building shortage. Add to that the fact that a significant number of public school teachers may have either perished or are evacuees themselves. 

We’re told that SM has allocated some P100 million for rehabilitation efforts that include the construction of row houses for survivors, and is on the lookout for kind souls who could donate the land. Perhaps other big businesses can do the same for school buildings if only to help the children overcome their trauma by keeping them busy with school activities.

Margareta Wahlström (in photo with Sy), the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary General for Disaster Risk Reduction as well as the head of the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction, had been warning about the “dramatic escalation of disasters” due to climate change, noting that people don’t seem to take disasters seriously enough. When disasters occur, people sympathize and suffer a lot but they forget after a while. However, the human and political cost is too high, she had told our senators.

Reality is, the long and arduous work of rebuilding is just beginning for the many areas that have been devastated by the recent spate of natural disasters particularly the Visayas region. The National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council estimates that 3.4 million people have been displaced while economic losses in terms of damage to infrastructure and agriculture is pegged at P24.5 billion plus. All over the world, climate change is wreaking havoc in the lives of people, disrupting economies and aggravating the pitiful condition of the poor who are the most vulnerable every time disasters happen.

According to the World Bank, economic losses due to catastrophic weather disturbances amount to almost $200 billion a year on a global scale—a big increase from the annual losses of $50 billion some three decades ago. Droughts, flooding, storms and earthquakes are going to get worse even as global climate changes worsen, scientists have warned. Typhoon Yolanda has put the spotlight on the Philippines, a country consistently on the Top 10 list of nations that are most at risk of natural disasters and calamities. Anybody who still raises a skeptical eyebrow on the impact of global warming and climate change had better have his head examined.