- CONTEXT
Typhoon Bopha (category 3) made landfall in Davao Oriental, on the Eastern coast of Mindanao on Tuesday, 4 December 2012. It brought heavy rain and extremely strong winds, leaving a path of destruction of homes, livelihoods and infrastructure as it crossed the country over a period of five days. Region XI (Compostela Valley and Davao Oriental) and Region XIII (Surigao Del Sur and Agusan Del Sur) were the most affected areas.
On 7 December 2012, the President of the Philippines declared a state of national calamity and requested international assistance. On 10 December 2012, the UN launched an appeal of USD 65 million. A revised version was launched on 25 January 2013, raising the total funding appeal to USD 76 million, with 64% still unmet.
On 10 December 2012, DG ECHO launched a Primary Emergency Decision of EUR 3 million in response to urgent humanitarian needs of 165,000 of the most vulnerable people in the most affected areas. The Decision supports three actions through a consortium of INGOs (ACF-lead agency, Care, Oxfam, Plan, Save the Children, Merlin), a consortium of Red Cross/Red Crescent societies (IFRC, German RC, Spanish RC, Netherlands RC), and UNOCHA .
In January 2013 the affected regions experienced, again, heavy rain that triggered floods and population displacement. These renewed floods slowed down the current response interventions and exacerbated the humanitarian situation of the already vulnerable people.
Two months after the disaster needs assessment reports from the UN, Clusters, IFRC and ICRC, as well as a recent DG ECHO field monitoring report, show that basic humanitarian gaps remain uncovered.