COVID-19 tests strengths, weaknesses on PH’s crisis management

CEBU CITY—The COVID-19 pandemic tested the strengths and weakness of the country’s crisis management and the structure of the system and the governance; the country’s ability or inability for the structure, the government, as well as the people to innovate and be creative.

According to Atty. Lesley Jeanne Cordero, Senior Disaster Risk Management Specialist of World Bank in a PSA webinar Pilot Session in November with the theme: “An In-depth Analysis of Crisis Management of the Philippines” that the COVID-19 pandemic has also highlighted the country’s level of flexibility to adapt, adjust, and implement of the government policies, systems, and mechanisms.

Cordero added that it also showed the resilience and heroism of the Filipinos and the character, integrity, and credibility of government leaders and officials at the national, local, regional level.

“The assessment of the Government’s response in the current situation will only be evident after the nation curbs the COVID-19 cases,” Cordero noted.

Cordero emphasized that the current challenge is how the Government can efficiently adjust and adapt to the evolving complex situation and how the institutions and agencies can self-correct from its lessons learned and apply best practices from successful models.

 

On the implications of the self-organizing efforts of Filipino citizens, Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), and the Private sector, Cordero suggested that self-organizing creates more difficulty for the government in times of crisis.

She pointed out though that these self-organizing efforts by individual citizens, NGOs, and the private sector are addressing a need that the government was not able to address quickly.

The challenge now is more on how the Philippine Government can manage organizations involved in self-organizing and how to put them under the existing crisis management structure or framework, Cordero emphasized that it is also the role of the government to lead these people’s efforts to supplement the government’s efforts.

She emphasized that to become a good crisis manager, one must be fast in adopting, adjusting, and executing the policies and guidelines of the commander-in-chief.

“We cannot force him to fit in the box that we are used to, but we can encourage him to recalibrate and reframe the exiting frameworks to fit whatever his commands or his needs is,” Cordero said. 

Cordero pointed out the importance of keeping the network open and continuing building on the network because no matter how effective one’s leadership qualities are, at the end of the day, in a crisis one needs a village to be able to move things.

With Atty. Cordero at the PSA webinar was Col. Ranulfo Sevilla INF (GSC) PA, member of the MNSA Regular Course 55 and was part of the writers and planners in the crafting of the National Crisis Management Core Manual.

The webinar was attended by MNSA students, prospective E-MNSA students, and government officials from different civilian agencies while the presentations focused on the spread of the disease, actions taken by the government, and relevant policies and initiatives of the government on crisis management.

Col. Sevilla provided a leveling briefer that covered the definition of terms and important provisions in the National Crisis Management Core Manual and the lack thereof. 

According to Sevilla the National Crisis Management Core Manual was crafted for the very purpose of harmonizing the government agencies, other sectors, and self-organizing efforts of the people.

Sevilla added that the people behind the manual was conscious of this as they wanted to prevent conflicts and misalignments on the existing policies and laws of the national government.  The Manual also provides a guide to address the gaps between the Local Governments and overlapping crisis management organizations.