EMERGING FROM THE WATER

(Operation Listo Success story in Pangasinan)

By: Ronn Dale B. Castillo

Famous author, Howard Ruff once said, “It wasn’t raining when Noah built
the Ark.” What caused Noah to emerge from the great flood of the bible aside from
his faith, was his preparedness. And for Pangasinan, this preparedness is
epitomized by the DILG’s Operation Listo Manual—its so-called Noah’s Ark.

Yet, it was not always like this.

BEFORE OPERATION LISTO: Typhoon Pepeng

It was October of 2009 when Typhoon “Pepeng” turned Pangasinan into a

virtual sea. The record-breaking amount of rain it brought forced San Roque Dam
to open its gates which ultimately caused the Agno River to overflow. The raging
flood water forced its way to different towns in the province drowning everything
in its path. Local Government leaders were caught off-guard despite a swift
response to the call of their constituents. Out of 1,356 villages scattered across 36
towns and cities, 973 were submerged in water in the days that followed. In only a
matter of days, Pepeng managed to claim 63 lives and P7.4 billion worth of
infrastructure, crops, fish and livestock.

The great flood became a wake-up call to Pangasinan: disaster preparedness

was not just an emergency; with its geographic location, it should be a priority.

ADVENT OF OPERATION LISTO

Five years after Pepeng, the Department of Interior and Local Government
(DILG) instituted Operation Listo as a manual to strengthen the capacity and level
of disaster preparedness of Local Government Units. It laid down the checklist of
early preparedness, response and recovery action for local government leaders and
other stakeholders which clearly had laid the foundation disaster preparedness. For
Pangasinan, Operation Listo was more than a manual; it was an answered prayer.

EMBRACING OPERATION LISTO

Like any other directives however, implementing the Operation Listo

Manual was not that easy. There were a lot of local chief executives who were
quite hesitant at first in embracing the manual. In fact, DILG records showed that
only about 10% of LGUs in the province were actually referred to the manual
during disaster events following the year of its implementation. But because of the
untiring efforts of the former Governor Amado T. Espino Jr and the DILG
Pangasinan, the manual was adopted, utilized and embraced not only by local chief
executives but more so by the communities they served. To this day, the manual is
still being utilized 100% by all the 48 local government units in Pangasinan and
displayed prominently in all DRRM offices in the province.

FRUITS OF OPERATION LISTO

Succeeding his father’s efforts in embracing the Operation Listo Manual,

present Governor Amado I. Espino, III has gone above and beyond the
implementation of the manual. Through his strong political will and fierce
advocacy for disaster preparedness, the manual was successfully passed down to
the barangay level. He spearheaded a special program to bring the manual down to
the barangay level. Hence, the program was called “Ligtas At Aktibong
Pamayanan” or LAP Derived from the Operation Listo Manual, the program
aimed to strengthen the capacity and level of disaster preparedness of local
community leaders. More than a manual however, LAP was a custom-fit program
that adapted to the needs of every receiving local barangays in the province. For
instance, the capacity and level of preparedness taught in mountain barangays were
different in terms of format but not of substance, from coastal barangays. Also,
based from their geographic location, they were taught indigenous DRR-CCA
mechanisms such as Life vests made of bottled water containers and Rain Guage
made of water gallons.

As of today, 15 of the most susceptible barangays to flooding has been

trained and oriented regarding Operation Listo Manual through the LAP.

But then, the governor did not stop there. He believed that the spirit of
Operation Listo should not just stay in the local government units but it should
transcend to the Filipino family. As LAP developed in the community
preparedness scene, he then initiated another by-product of Operation Listo and
LAP called “Ligtas at Aktibong Kabataan” or LAK which recognized the youth’s
important role, especially the Sangguniang Kabataan in Disaster Preparedness and
Capacity Building. This way, the old and the new generation were capacitated for
DRR-CCA thus strengthening disaster preparedness down to the basic unit of
society which is the family.
 All these little seeds of effort are slowly growing and bearing fruits. In fact,
Pangasinan is slowly being recognized in the field of DRR-CCA both nationally
and internationally. The Province has been consistently awarded as a hall of famer
for Seal of Good Local Governance on a National Level since the implementation
of Operation Listo. Its Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management
Office’s facebook page has been the most followed facebook page in the whole
country with more than 200K followers allowing more efficient information
dissemination for DRR-CCA. It has been chosen as a recipient of Japanese
Technology called GeoCloud Geographic Information System from the Japan
International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for disaster preparedness.

Indeed, the effect of Operation Listo are crystal clear. Pangasinan has
become more prepared and resilient now more than ever.

AFTER OPERATION LISTO: Typhoon Ompong

It was September of 2018, almost a decade after Typhoon Pepeng, when

Typhoon Ompong hit the Province with similar magnitude. Again, Pangasinan
was turned into a virtual sea. The record-breaking amount of rain it brought forced
San Roque Dam to open its gates which ultimately caused the Agno River to
overflow. The raging flood water forced its way to different towns in the province
drowning everything in its path.

But this time…

Local Government leaders were not caught off-guard despite a swift

response to the call of their constituents. This time, only 112 barangays and 12
municipalities were submerged into water. This time only less than a billion was
the worth of the extent of damages.

This time, no life was claimed.

At that moment, Pangasinan has realized, its disaster preparedness has been
strengthened through the Operation Listo Manual.

It was not raining when Pangasinan implemented and strengthened

Operation Listo to all its local government unit. But when it rains and floods again,
Pangasinan will surely emerge from the water.