Cebuana Lhuillier continues to push for disaster preparedness among Filipinos
Cebuana Lhuillier continues to push for disaster preparedness among Filipinos
Cebuana Lhuillier reinforces disaster resilience advocacy on its third year.
On the heels of last years successful disaster resilience forum, Cebuana Lhuillier continues to push for disaster preparedness among Filipinos, gathering the country’s
industry experts in disaster management, risk reduction, and post-disaster rehabilitation on July 4, 2018 at Shangri-la the Fort Manila for the ‘2018 READY Disaster Resilience Forum – Disaster Resilience Begins with Me.
This year’s theme is an iteration of the past two fora, focusing on the need for everyone
including the first responders; communities and families; and individual Filipinos to be
ready and be fully equipped to take on an active role in disaster resilience.
When we started the Disaster Resilience Forum two years ago, our vision was to build a nation of resilient Filipinos – armed with the information and know-how to protect and help others during times of disasters and natural calamities,” said Cebuana Lhuilier President and CEO Jean Henri Lhuillier.
He added, “This year, we would like to encourage each and every Filipino to take on a more proactive role in building disaster resilient communities by highlighting personal readiness and security to alleviate massive losses and damages during disasters.”
In partnership with the Regulatory Framework Promotion of Pro-poor Insurance Markets in Asia (RFPI Asia) and the Mutual Exchange Forum on Inclusive Insurance Network (MEFIN), the event was organized to serve as a platform to discuss measures on the disaster resilience of first responders such as members of the army and local policemen against any type of disaster.
The forum is also a venue for various local government and civil societies to share
learnings and best practices to strengthen and improve other communities’ disastere resilience capabilities. The multi-sector panel discussion seeks to increase awareness on the role of microinsurance as a disaster-risk finance tool to make every Filipino resilient against the impacts of disasters and calamities, as well as, promote conversations about each
Filipino’s role in every phase of disaster risk reduction and management.
Broken down in three panel sessions, the forum opened with ‘First Things First: How Resilient are Our First Responders?’ The panel featured Restituto F. Padilla
Deputy Chief of Staff for Plans, J5 of the Armed Forces of the Philippines; Rene “Butch”S. Meily, president of the Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation, Inc.: and Manuel “Nong” C. Rangasa, chairman and executive director of Local Climate Change
Adaptation for Development, Inc
Kicking off the second discussion, ‘Moving Forward: How do we Strengthen our Communities Resilience?,’ were Maribeth L. Marasigan, first vice president and chief operating officer of WeatherPhilippines Foundation;Jorge S. Ebay, associate professor in Community Development at the University of the Philippines-Visayas; and Dr. June Caridad Pagaduan Lopez, convenor of Citizen’s Network for Psychosocial Response.
The third and final panel session, ‘On to the Next Step: How can Every Filipino be
Ready and Help?’ were presented by Stacy de Jesus, head of Community and Digital Communications of Rappler, Inc and Pebbles Badillo Sanchez-Ogang, executive director of YESPinoy Foundation, Inc.The forum also featured Commissioner Dennis B. Funa of the Insuranc Commission
and Jonathan D. Batangan, first vice president and group head of Cebuana Lhuillier Insurance Solutions, Cebuana Lhuillier Foundation, Inc., and Cebuana Lhuillieru Business Solutions; and news anchor and program host, Tony Velasquez of the ABS CBN News Channel (ANC) as forum moderator.
To further reinforce its disaster resilience advocacy, Cebuana Lhuillier launched OurHelp, a donation site where donors can ensure individuals or communities who do not have access to or means to get insurance coverage for as low as one dollar or 53pesos. OurHelp is an offshoot of the company’s National Pilipino Protektado Day, a monthlong campaign that helped insure one million Filpinos in 2016.