To: Hon. Geraldine B.

Roman, Chairperson of the Committee on Disaster Management

From: Antonio Miguel R. Arugay
Date: October 25, 2018
Re: E-Balde for Everyone

Executive Summary

The Philippines as an archipelagic nation is considered a disaster risk prone country

due to the number of typhoons entering the country each year. Over 20 typhoons enter the
country each year, with over around 10 of these making landfall within the country on an
average yearly basis.1 Typhoon Ondoy for example devastated the country on the year 2009
specially bringing floods across the entirety of Metro Manila, central Luzon and the Visayan
region. The typhoon also killed around 700 people. Other than the death toll, it has also
destroyed a total of $1.09 billion dollars worth of infrastructure.2 The latest Super Typhoon to
enter this country within the year 2018 is that of Ompong wherein the Typhoon struck
Northern Luzon making landfall within the province of Cagayan. Landslides caused by
torrential rains from the typhoon killed more than around 70 people in Itogon, Benguet and
brought floods to upper cities and municipalities such as Baguio City.3 Even though the death
toll within the provinces of Cagayan, Ilocos, Abra, Kalinga and Isabela remain low, Ompong
destroyed over P26.7 billion worth of crops, thus inhibiting the full profit potential of our
dear farmers in the region.4

Given that natural disasters are a reality and an often case for our country, the people
need a way to quickly prepare for such calamities when it strikes no matter when. Thus this
policy memo proposes the “E-balde (Emergency Balde) for Every Juan”. Given that the
“balde” is a very common household item found in almost all Filipino households, it can
easily be filled in with items. Thus the e-balde initiative is to use this easily found household
item and fill it with all the necessities that any family would need to prepare in cases of
disasters and calamities specially that of typhoons and flooding. Conceptualized by
“Eveready,” the battery company, it furthers the need for Filipino families the need for such
kits. The contents would mainly consist of a radio, mirror, atleast one liter of bottled water, a
shirt, a cellphone, all-purpose tools, umbrella, important documents (ex. Passports),
medicines, flashlight, batteries, lighter and food.5 This would serve as the family’s or an
individual’s emergency kit in cases of disasters. Some municipalities and cities in the country
such as Muntinlupa have already adopted a local policy which mandates all families to have
an e-balde stocked at all times. By making a nationwide policy for this initiative, I believe
families would be better prepared for such calamities and disasters considering that we are
prone to this as a nation. Furthermore, this would alleviate families in terms of finding
communication means due to the presence of cellphones and radios in their own respective e-
baldes. Poorer families may be given by the government free e-baldes as emergency kits for
these families who cannot afford to purchase the necessities of this kit.

1 “Philippines: Destructive Tropical Cyclones from 2006 – 2016,” United Nations Office for the Coordination
Humanitarian Affairs, 2016, Web, October 15, 2018.
2 Sarah Jayne Olan, “Looking back: the records of Ondoy”, Rappler, September 26, 2014, Web, October 15,

2018.
3 “Atleast 78 dead in Itogon, Benguet, after Typhoon Ompong”, Rappler, September 25, 2018, Web, October

15, 2018.
4 Ralf Rivas, “Agricultural Damage by Typhoon Ompong highest since Yolanda”, Rappler, September 24,

2018, Web, October 15, 2018.

5 SMART Public Affairs, “Get Ready, Be Safe, Make an E-Balde”, SMART Communications, August 07, 2014,

Web, October 15, 2018.

1
Typhoons in the Philippines

From the year 2006 to 2016, around 65% of the tropical cyclones that entered the
country made landfall in the Philippines, and about 10 of these typhoons were particularly
deadly.6 Given that the annual number of typhoons that enter the Philippine Area of
Responsibility (PAR) each year as given by the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and
Astronomical Services Administration (PAG-ASA) is around 20 typhoons, we can say that an
average number of 200 typhoons enter the country in over a span of a decade. Looking at it at
that number, the country should have concrete Disaster Risk Prevention and Management
initiatives to lessen the impact of these typhoons for our everyday Filipino families.

Even though Local Government Units (LGU’s) have already Disaster Risk
Management Procedures they follow, the E-Balde Project would be a good addition to these
Disaster Risk Reduction Management (DRRM) procedures as will be highlighted with the
proceeding paragraphs.

The graphic below shows data of typhoons that entered the PAR from 2006 to 2016.

(“Philippines: Destructive Tropical Cyclones from 2006 – 2016,” United Nations Office for the Coordination
Humanitarian Affairs, 2016, Web, October 15, 2018.)

As we can see from the graphic above, Typhoon Yolanda in the year 2013 killed over
6,300 people, followed by Sendong with over 1,901 dead, and Frank with 1,501 dead. In
terms of the number of affected population, Yolanda had over 5.13 million Filipinos either
looking for food, shelter, family members or all three. And this was followed by Frank in
2008 disturbing the lives of over 4.78 million Filipinos and Pablo with over 973,000.

The Need for National Wide Emergency Kit for Families

Even though the Philippines received billions worth of disaster relief items for these
different calamities, families should not just rely on these for their own survival. RA10121 or
the “Philippine Disaster Reduction Management Plan Act” was formulized after the onset of
Typhoon Ondoy. The issue with this act and the current National Disaster Risk Reduction
Management Framework is that it focuses only in working with the different government

6“Philippines: Destructive Tropical Cyclones from 2006 – 2016,” United Nations Office for the Coordination
Humanitarian Affairs, 2016, Web, October 15, 2018.
agencies to ensure a proper management and facilitation of disaster risk reduction operations.
Meaning, before disasters the main plan is fast coordination with quick response teams and
other agencies while the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) properly disseminates
information about “awareness” to enhance the capacity of the community to handle the
hazards of the calamities.7 It doesn’t really delve into the family unit itself, only through
communities. Thus a policy should be made to standardize a proper preparedness measure for
family units such as things to prepare all times in cases such as typhoons specially that this is
frequent in our nation. Just as every establishment should have fire preparedness tools such as
fire extinguishers and sprinkler systems, every family should be mandated to have a disaster
risk reduction kit for their own safety.

(1) People should make emergency preparedness a part of the everyday lifestyle of the
Filipino and thus this E-balde is an initiative to start that this. The frequency of typhoons and
occurrences of flooding within the country due to geographic features makes preparedness of
each family unit in the country a priority.

(2) Given that radios and cellphones are part of this kit, communication with local
governments during evacuation procedures would be less of a hassle within the
communications side given that when these kits provide the ways to communicate and hear
news no matter where they are through their radios and cellphones. Given the death toll
numbers in the graphic above, specially that of Yolanda wherein many died during a storm
surge, through the use of these kits families near coastlines could be warned off and be easily
directed to nearby evacuation sites working in tandem with evacuation teams for a
smoothened out evacuation procedure.

(3) With this kit, people would be better prepared for food shortages short term specially
during the first weeks of a typhoon onslaught wherein roads could be blocked off, rivers too
high and too dangerous to cross could induce shortages within a community. As the kit
provides ample food for the family to survive within the first days or even weeks of the
aftermath, it helps the family get through some of the hardest days during these calamities.

(4) It is an effective and a cheap way to prepare for typhoons given that it covers the families’
basic needs, but also gadgets for communication and as well as important documents that the
family needs specially for identification or documents pertaining to the availing of
government services such as PhilHealth, SSS, GSIS, PhilAm etc. Considering that this is also
a compact way to manage these necessities all in one “balde”, it can easily be stored to any
part of the house with ease that is easily accessible once calamities occur within an area.

(5) Given a national policy that would mandate the use of these “E-balde’s’ a necessity for
every household, these would allow a better preparedness to every household nationwide, and
if this policy would allow the government to provide for poorer families the benefit of giving
these families free E-balde’s, this kit would then be accessible to every family in the
Philippines. Thus providing this kit a broader range of possibilities for DRRM such as
specialized E-balde’s for different uses. This E-balde’s could even be modified to have
floating devices that would allow it to become a buoyancy aid that would allow people to
float above flood waters should flash floods happen.

7“National Risk Reduction Management Plan (2011-2028)”, National Disaster Risk Reduction Management
Council, 2010, Web, October 15, 2018.
 The Government has the budget to fund this project and provide it on a national scale,
local government units are even purchasing units for their own cities such as Cebu which has
already offered bidding contracts to any company that can fulfill their offer. Estimated costs
for each balde would go at around P1,200 pesos8, but this is a worthwhile investment for any
family specially the frequency of typhoons and disasters in our country. Budget isn’t even an
issue for this project as this already a cheap option for an overall preparedness kit that fits any
situation and includes not only necessities for surviving but communications as well.

There are pretty much minimal to no opposition against this project as it is sound
initiative to bring preparedness for different calamities to the basic Filipino family. Different
LGU’s are already promoting and making local policies for the procurement and distribution
of these kits. The only thing left to do is for the government to properly implement this
through a national policy that would provide proper funding for this project and would allow
LGU’s to procure these kits and distribute them to families who cannot afford to buy the kits
or necessary items to build the kit themselves.

Probably the only argument I could think about this is why have a need for a national
policy if “Operation Listo” from the DILG already provides these E-Baldes?

The Department of Interior and Local Government’s “Operation Listo” only provides
an awareness drive for communities on how to build these E-baldes and the necessary items
that would allow it to truly become an emergency kit. But it does not provide for the
individual families these E-balde’s on a national scale. Providing a national policy for this
would allow families to receive these kits and not just information on how to build them.
These would also allow funding for it which could reach more families and prepare more
communities. Given the price tag of all items included in this kit, poorer families may not be
able to build this kit due to the raised prices of items due to inflation, thus it is just that proper
funding for this project be done so that all families will be able to avail of these kits no matter
what their economic status is.

Conclusion

The Philippines as a disaster prone country experiences frequent typhoons entering its
area of responsibility. Given the frequent onset of typhoons, it brings hazards to the citizens.
Relying on quick response teams and LGU’s to help us in these calamities should not be the
case but proper preparedness. Thus summarizing this policy, the E-Balde Project provides an
overall all-in-one kit that provides a level of preparedness to any family that has it. Providing
communication options in cases of emergencies, providing food for short term shortage
situations, tools for alerting authorities and quick response teams, and lighting in cases of
earthquakes. With the government providing this for its citizens through a national policy, all
families within the country may be able to avail of this kit. Economic status will no longer be
a hindrance for preparedness in a country ravaged my multitudes of typhoons every year. As
a disaster prone country, preparedness should be a norm. And the E-Balde Project provides
this first step towards this.

8Sheena Lou, “PR NO. 18-10-5277 (240 sets Emergency Balde. For use in Orientation and Support on Family
Preparedness with Provision of E-Balde to the different LGU’s (PDRRMO)”, Local Government of Cebu,
October 17, 2018, Web, October 15, 2018.