Though several months have already passed since Typhoon Ondoy had hit the country, numerous Filipinos still suffer from the repercussions of the said disaster. In Rizal Province, one of the severely affected areas during that time, a lot of the underprivileged victims from Cainta and Taytay who had unfortunately lost their homes to the said calamity are still occupying temporary evacuation areas, while patiently waiting for their respective transitional shelters from the Philippine Red Cross (PRC).

The projected transitional shelter site

This report covers the period 1 January to 31 December 2009.

In brief

Programme purpose: To coordinate and support IFRC (i.e. secretariat and partner national societies) efforts to assist host national societies in Southeast Asia to scale up their work in line with the Global Agenda. In early 2010, the priority is to support national societies as they transition to working under Strategy 2020.

Programme summary: The Southeast Asia team based in Bangkok has:

- Strategically supported and guided country office teams (Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Philippines, Timor-Leste,

1. Executive Summary

Key findings, conclusions and main recommendations

General Findings

The Philippines is one of the most hazard prone countries in the world (paragraphs 15-17). For this reason, the country has dedicated significant resources to strengthen response capacity and disaster management mechanisms. Under normal circumstances the Filipino Government has the capacity and ability to manage response to natural disasters. However, the magnitude, sequence and impact of the recent typhoons and storms overstretched the Philippines' response capacity. As a result, assistance

by Cpt Emmanuel R Garcia

Davao City (27 April) -- While the GRP-MILF peace panels negotiated for an interim agreement in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in the last two days, the Mindanao PeaceWeavers (MPW) was also brewing a document called the Mindanao People's Peace Agenda (MPPA) that they plan to offer to the two negotiating panels as Mindanao civil society's blueprint towards a common peace platform.

"After almost four years of community, grassroots, multi-sectoral and multi-network consultations and a long, grueling process of validation, we finally have this historic document,"

As this book was in its final stages of preparation, contributing author Professor Octavio Dinampo of Mindanao State University was taken hostage while he guided journalists to meet a leader of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) in Sulu province in June 2008. Instead of considering him to be among the civilian hostages, security force officials cast suspicions over the possible culpability of Dinampo, a former member of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and now respected academic and peace advocate. He was released ten days later.

Several of the motivations for writing

Japanese Ambassador Makoto Katsura and Secretary of Foreign Affairs Alberto Romulo signed and exchanged notes on April 26, 2010 at the Department of Foreign Affairs in Pasay City for an ODA loan that will finance the rehabilitation of infrastructure damaged by Tropical Storm Ondoy and Typhoon Pepeng.

The signing and exchanging of notes officially marked the appropriation of approximately 9.9 billion yen (approximately 5 billion pesos) from the Government of Japan, through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), for the Post Ondoy and Pepeng Short-Term Infrastructure