Batanes earthquakes: Media must look into lapses in disaster preparedness

TYPHOON RESILIENT Batanes proved no match to earthquakes.

Two tremors, one of magnitude 5.4 at 4:16 a.m. and another of magnitude 5.9 at 7:37 a.m. on Saturday, July 27, left Itbayat, a town in the picturesque island province, in ruins. More than 300 aftershocks have since been recorded as of August 5 per data from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC).

As in their coverage of other disasters, media duly reported the number of the dead and the wounded, together with updates on the situation of evacuees. Because it is known for its resilience to typhoons, a quake-stricken Batanes invited inquiry: Are Batanes communities prepared for calamities other than storms?  The coverage suggests they’re not.

CMFR reviewed the reporting on the Batanes quakes of the leading Manila broadsheets (Philippine Daily Inquirer, The Philippine Star and Manila Bulletin) and of the primetime newscasts (ABS-CBN 2’s TV Patrol, GMA-7’s 24 Oras, TV5’s Aksyon, CNN Philippines’ News Night) from July 27 to August 5.

Curious case

Many journalists traveled to the island province as news of the quake spread. TV reporters delivered stand-ups on the situation in Itbayat for days. They showed clips of frightened evacuees and destroyed property. An island town located north of Basco, the provincial capital, media noted inclement weather which made relief operations even more difficult.

Media also did the usual recounts of the disaster experience – the strongest the province had ever experienced in 60 years, according to Renato Solidum Jr., undersecretary of the Department of Science and Technology and also officer-in-charge of the Philippine Institute for Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs).

Aside from the loss of lives, damage to the centuries-old stone houses also made the news. Phivolcs said the limestone houses had weakened over time, and could not stand up to the force of a strong earthquake.

That most of the nine casualties were crushed by their collapsing homes raised the feasibility of the usual measures to insure disaster preparedness. Republic Act 10121, the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act signed in 2009, established local disaster risk reduction and management offices in every province, city and municipality mandated to facilitate assessments of the communities’ risks from disasters and to put contingency plans in place.

What happened in Itbayat should have prompted the media to ask if such an assessment has been made on Batanes. 

Vulnerabilities revealed

News Night stood out for its July 31 report which underscored the need for hazard assessments. CNN Philippines reported that during a town hall meeting, a resident inquired if Phivolcs had informed government agencies about the risks embedded in the structure of their traditional houses.

The report also said Phivolcs did warn government in 2013 of Batanes’ vulnerability following a quake that hit the province, but noted that it was “unclear if previous administrations” did anything about it. The same report also revealed that Itbayat has not had a municipal engineer for about a year.

While reporting the casualties, the destruction and the needs of those affected are important, looking into government lapses in its risk reduction and mitigation efforts would help prod it into reviewing and addressing them.

In the case of Batanes, the media should extend its narrative of recovery and rehabilitation efforts to include the assessment of the irreparable loss of legacy and tradition not only in Batanes, but in all such sites in the country.