ASIA & EUROPE MEETING PARTICIPANTS TO VISIT HAIYAN-HIT LEYTE

Prior to the plenary conference on mega-disasters in Manila on June 5, Asia and Europe Meeting (ASEM) delegates will visit the Haiyan-hit province of Leyte.

ASEM delegates will meet with Leyte Governor Dominic L. Petilla, and Mayors Pelagio Tecson Jr. of Tanauan, Alfred Romualdez of Tacloban and Remedios Petilla of Palo, and NGO leaders.

The local chief executives will discuss their experiences during the super typhoon and the residual challenges and opportunities.

The delegates will also visit Bislig Elementary School in Tanauan and participate in the ground-breaking ceremony of an ASEM computer classroom. 

From Bislig, the ASEM delegates will visit another Tanauan village, Barangay Pago which is one of the sites of a resettlement project for some 1,200 Haiyan-displaced families of the municipality. 

Already, some 40 displaced families have been given permanent houses at the Pago resettlement site which is being developed with the help of Gawad Kalinga, Bayani Challenge, the National Housing Authority and the Local Government Unit.

The ASEM on mega disasters is set to be held in Manila on June 4-6 where a discussion on how best to handle future mega disasters will be conducted and participated in by some 150 high ranking officials of government and private organizations in Asia and Europe. (opt)

BEWARE OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING, Haiyan victims warned

A female police officer who intercepted a suspected case of trafficking of five young girls from Tacloban City attributes her alertness to her training on human trafficking provided by the United Nations Population Fund and its partners in the campaign against gender-based violence.

The five girls, aged between 10 and 15, were onboard a bus leaving for Manila in Abucay bus terminal just before Holy Week when the police officer, with social welfare officer Carmela Bastes from the Tacloban City Social Welfare and Development Office, held them. The girls were traveling with four adults claiming to be members of a non-government organization helping survivors of typhoon Yolanda.

When asked by the police officer, the girls said they were going to Manila but could not give further information. The suspecting police officer and CSWD worker then invited the girls and their adult companions for further questioning at the police station.

The four adults, including a woman in a nun’s habit, reportedly arrived in Leyte on April 9 and conducted relief goods distribution in one barangay in the municipality of Marabut, where the girls live. (opt)

ASIA EUROPE MEETING ON MEGA-DISASTERS SET IN MANILA ON JUNE 4-6

A discussion on how best to handle future mega-disasters will be held in Manila June 4-6, in a meeting attended by some 150 high ranking officials of government and private organizations in Asia and  Europe.

The conference has been dubbed “The Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM) Manila Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction and Management: Post Haiyan – A Way Forward.” It is a Philippine initiative adopted by 49 heads of states and governments, the president of the European Union (EU), and the secretary general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Expected to be attended by senior government officials, scientists, academics, policymakers, industry and business leaders, non-governmental organization (NGO)leaders, and representatives of regional and international organizations from Asia and Europe, the  international gathering will engage in earnest discussions and lively debates on whether current international practices and principles still hold in the light of the Philippine experience with typhoon Yolanda, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

A sharing of best practices, innovation and technology for disaster risk reduction and management, as well as how best to reconstruct and rehabilitate devastated areas will also be themes for discussion in the four working groups of the ASEM Conference, that will be chaired by the EU, the Philippines, Switzerland, and Japan.

EU Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Kristalina Georgieva and Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction Margareta Wahlstrom will join Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and other cabinet officials in making plenary statements during the ASEM Manila Conference.

Conference chairperson Maria Zeneida Angara Collinson, the DFA Assistant Secretary for European Affairs, said the ASEM Manila Conference is being held at a crucial time when the decade-old Hyogo Framework of Action (HFA) adopted by the world community as the global paradigm on disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM) is about to end in 2015. (opt)