Institutional Change of Disaster Risk Reduction Management Offices in Selected Areas of Post-Haiyan Philippines

The effects of Typhoon Haiyan caused an institutional change in the disaster risk reduction (DRR) response of the urban and rural Disaster Risk Reduction Management (DRRM) offices. The change resulted in the clearer implementation of the Philippine DRRM Act of 2010 (DRRM ACT). The implementation of the Act expanded the scope of services from mere national disaster relief response to DRR management. This chapter presents an examination of the DRRM plans and interviews with DRRM officers of the two most heavily affected areas of the typhoon. These are Tacloban City (the regional capital of Eastern Visayas, representing the urban scenario) and Guiuan, Eastern Samar (where Typhoon Haiyan made its first landfall, an illustration of the rural scenario). A majority of enterprises in these localities were (and still are) micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), with both locations classified as tourism development areas by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) of the Philippines. The chapter used qualitative content analysis of documents and thematic analysis of interview transcripts. Findings showed that there were different institutional changes implemented by both urban and rural DRRM offices before and after Haiyan. Most of the changes revolved around the focus and structure of DRRM institutions. DRRM offices were tied to postdisaster relief only, and their organizations were limited in scope before Haiyan. After the typhoon, these offices had their scopes increased to provide proactive measures and more inclusive DRRM. However, there were limited disaster resilience interventions specific to postdisaster tourism MSMEs. Thus, this chapter analyzes the institutional changes through the lens of the four dimensions of resilience namely, social, environmental, governance, and economic. Consequently, the chapter recommended an outline of a resilience program and a framework for postdisaster tourism MSMEs.