Vertical and Horizontal Accountability Among Stakeholders in Disaster Mitigation and Response in the Philippines

The Philippines is regarded as one of the most disaster prone countries not only in Asia but globally. The Philippine Government at the national and local levels have claimed availability of effective and efficient disaster mitigation and response mechanism. Common to hear from government officials, “everything is taken cared of”. Politicians would even say we will be better off next time as we already experience the worst. But despite this claim and apparently lessons learned, damage to properties and human lives continue to occur.

This paper focuses on the delivery of disaster response and mitigation at the  communities as guided by the central government development planning and strategies. The paper focuses on the selected communities in the Philippines and how uncoordinated efforts from the national to the local levels affect the quality of disaster response and mitigation. This justifies the need for a more careful study on the issue of accountability and responsibility among the key actors, how accountability is being exercised horizontally and vertically, who is accountable to whom, how can accountability facilitates or hinders a more effective disaster mitigation and response. This paper utilizes actual field works to the communities. The study makes use of key informants interview and focus group discussion among key stakeholders and review of the existing laws and relevant policies.

There is a limited studies conducted on the roles responsibilities and accountabilities of the local government as mandated by two national laws, the Local Government Code of 1991 ( RA 7160) and the (RA 10121) National Disaster management Law. The paper hopes to provide fresh insights and recommendations on how to improve delivery of disaster response and mitigation particularly at the community level in the context of accountability.