ee ae ok ee) Te Te an =x 2) PRIORITIES ARE INTEGRATED INTO THE BARANGAY DEVELOPMENT PLANS Like most poor communities of Camarines Sur, Barangay Bical, a coastal barangay (village) of the Municipality of San Fernando, is very vulnerable to typhoons, storm surges, floods and landslides. San Fernando is a fifth class municipality and is composed of 22 barangays with four of these being coastal communities - Barangay Bical, Cotmo, Gnaran and Pinamasagan. Coastal barangays are almost always poor and Barangay Bical is no exception. It is a sleepy community of around 200 households and a population of 1,048, located at the foot of a mountain and nestled along the coast of Ragay Gulf. Most of the families depend on fishing and farming for their livelihood. Fishing has increasingly become difficult because of dwindling catch and the threat of frequent and severe typhoons. Barangay Bical residents also produce sweet potato, corn, cassava, bananas, taro, and coconut. The coconut trees, however, were destroyed by Typhoon Nina in December 2016. While farming is a primary source of income, almost 80% of the families do not own the land they til. These difficulties have forced many farmers to search for jobs outside Bical, and have become construction workers. Farm products are also difficult to transport to the town proper which is 24 kilometers away. Transportation is difficult and fares are expensive. The road going to and from Barangay Bical is long and winding, conereted and sometimes rough, with a series of uphill and downhill become too slippery, and riding jeepneys and habal-habal becomes dangerous. When the roads become difficult to navigate, jeepneys and habal-habals can no longer reach Barangay Bical so residents walk part of the way.PREPARING FOR TYPHOONS Being located in the path of typhoons, living with them has been Barangay Bical's way of life. The members of the Barangay Council recalled that before 2014, when a typhoon hit them, each family was left to its own to prepare for their needs. Families on their own decided whether to evacuate or not, or when to evacuate. The barangay officials would help evacuate when asked, and most of the time, when the typhoon is already upon them. An, evacuation center, which is a very small multi-purpose building, is opened for evacuees regardless of number. ‘On July 15, 2014, Typhoon Glenda ravaged the Bicol Region. Bical community members recall that with Glenda, the experience was very much different from previous typhoons. The Barangay Council officials were able to prepare the whole barangay, activating in time the early warning system in place to inform community members of the impending hazard event. The barangay officials asked the residents near the beach area and in landslide-prone areas to evacuate early. As a result, there were no casualties. They knew what they had to do, as a barangay. That was the big difference. That was the start of several positive changes in the community. In 2014, the same year Typhoon Glenda hit the Bicol region, Philippine Red Cross (PRC) started to implement the project “Empowering communities and Local government Units in Implementing Inclusive Development Programs in the Philippines” in Barangay Bical, among several other areas in Bicol. The project started with a training on Disaster Management with 10 of the barangay council members participating. What the council members learned from the the training was relayed to the community through a General Assembly which was attended by around 95% of the barangay population In April of 2015, the Bical council members assessed the risks in their barangay through PRC's Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment (VCA) activity. Hazard events were recalled through the barangay's timeline. Through hazard mapping, unsafe or hazard prone locations were identified. Seasonal changes and how they affect farming activities were analyzed. The council members together with some members of the community conducted a transect walk so that significant risk factors in specific locations of their barangay were identified. They were also able to draw up an action plan based on their findings. This is a set of risk reduction activities that aim to address the problems identified in the VCA activity. Barangay Bical now has a plan on how to prepare and reduce the negative impacts of flooding, rain-induced landslides and storm surges. “Pinapangunahan na po namin ang bagyo ngayon,” they proudly share (We are now planning ahead of actual typhoon events). The Council considers the following as part of the barangay preparedness activities: having a list of households with houses made of light materials and which can be easily damaged by typhoons and strong winds; having identified the exact locations of areas prone to landslides and flooding; and a list of families that can be affected by these hazards, including the most vulnerable members of the ‘community. The Barangay Council also realized that the early-warning system developed is helpful in giving out early information especially to vulnerable members of the barangay. The barangay council members through the Barangay Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Committee (BDRRMC) are now the ones initiating the evacuation of affected families, and prioitizing the most vulnerable among them. Ta el ae) AHEAD OF THE Fl ACTUAL TYPHOON EVENTSASSESING RISKS, ASSESSING COMMUNITY NEEDS ‘The workshops where members and officers identified the hazards, vulnerabilities and capacities of the community have given them a better view of the risks they are facing as a community. Aside from having preparedness plans for effective response to typhoons, the barangay is also slowly addressing the needs the community has identified to make them more resilient to typhoons, ‘The community has realized that numerous needs have to to be addressed to reduce shared risks. Some of the identified are the following: there is no evacuation center capable of housing the barangay’s potential number of evacuees. The absence of drainage canals on the other hand aggravates the flooding problem. Added to this are other problems relating to livelihoods ‘that contribute to the barangay's vulnerability to typhoons, flooding and landslides. The sea no longer gives them the usual catch of years earlier. Catch has been greatly reduced and the fish are becoming smaller. A secondary source of livelihood, farming has also its problems. The absence of farm to market roads make it difficult for them to transport their products to local markets. Transportation cost is too high and the bumpy ride does not help to preserve the freshness and good appearance of their produce upon reaching the market. Often, the farmers and fishermen would settle for cheaper rates from the dealer who comes to the barangay to buy their products. Moreover, earnings would have to be shared with the landowner, further reducing household income. Typhoon Nina in 2016 also destroyed all coconut trees leaving many farmers in debt. The lack of a stable source of income was identified as a shared problem of the whole community.erience of Bical in the last 3-4 years has not only improved the barangay's capacity to handle emergencies as a community led by the Barangay Council and the BDRRMC. The people have also realized the importance of being aware of the risks and the changes happening around them. They have acknowledged that this increased awareness has been pivotal in addressing their needs. The Barangay Treasurer reflected that the most important thing that they learned is to have a plan for preparedness. A responsive plan is based on the problems and needs commonly identified. The support the community gives to the Barangay Council comes from the knowledge that they were part of those who have identified, and therefore agreed, on the problems being acted upon by the whole community. It will take a longer period of time for Barangay Bical to become truly resilient. When asked about the council members’ idea of a resilient community, the responses ranged from — a community no longer dependent on relief and assistance from other truly helping one another through bayanihan (mutual aid); a community where each member is able to go to school, get a degree and eventually have a stable job; community where farmers have their own lands to till and a community with different sources of livelinood to depend on. What is definite is that the people and the Barangay Council have taken decisive steps to address their shared problems and needs and are now working together to build a resilient community. Bical remains a quiet and sleepy barangay. But in the background, it is alert with the Barangay Council and community members busy with activities aimed at reducing the risks they face and strengthening their resilience. The story of Barangay Bical shows that poor and hazard-prone communities are able to govern and implement DRR given the opportunities to improve their relevant capacities. It is a success story, still evolving, but already worth replicating,