While this is an oft-repeated broad recommendation by various public and private institutions in the country that do take the responsibility to respond seriously, there remain gaps in the manner and method by which responses are designed and implemented. The need for better decision-making in responding to natural disasters, both at national and local levels, has been the underlying reason for ESSC's exchange in Aurora-Quezon and Nueva Ecija in 2005.

Understanding the problems and the causes is primary, so that the solutions sought and reached are effective, appropriate, and can be locally sustained. The analysis of the various elements and the relevant baseline information and datasets are critical in presenting a sharper illustration of what happened and what can happen again. The integration of past experiences in analyzing the present to prepare for the future is critical in establishing what needs to, and can, be done.

The attempt to be comprehensive is clearly not without its limitations as information and datasets available are of uneven quality and require further work to unpack and establish the validity. For example, while there is the availability of high-resolution satellite images that can provide visuals of land cover changes through specific time periods, specific information on the biophysical elements that contribute to the changes in the landscape are lacking. Anecdotal knowledge from local residents provides an initial basis to analyze but requires an accompanying set of information to validate. Soil analysis is impeded by the lack of information on soil depths, an important element in locating areas of high-risk. Available rainfall measurements are inadequate. Studies on upland and large catchment areas in the country are sparse, if there are any.

The November-December 2004 flooding and landslides in the east coast of Luzon brought out on the one hand a perfect opportunity to analyze an extreme rainfall event that does not regularly occur. In these times of more acute environmental awareness and greater accessibility to information and applicable technology, the possibility of crafting more in-depth and long-lasting solutions is at our disposal. On the other hand, the socio-cultural and political aspects that emerged during and after the disaster are still stuck in a quagmire of name-calling, agency blaming, political grandstanding, media sensationalism, fact distortion, misinterpretation, and misuse, and outright forgetfulness until such time a disaster recurs.

The call for a social contract, that will incorporate the terms and limits that nature is setting with the painful and tragic lessons from past disaster events, is a call for change. The local government units and communities of the five municipalities hardest hit are learning and responding more effectively in various levels. They need to be assisted with proper and accurate information that can be made available to them in their land and water use planning. More importantly, these local responses need to be matched with an improved national reckoning that does not place poor people's welfare, livelihoods, and lives at greater risk.

Two sets of a four-poster map series in Pilipino were generated. One set covers the municipalities of Real, Infanta, and General Nakar (or REINA) in Quezon Province. The other set covers the municipalities of Dingalan in Aurora Province and Gabaldon in Nueva Ecija Province. The work generated relied on a GIS-based analysis of the different geo-spatial information and datasets available. Text development was informed by local interviews and review of secondary information and related studies by other agencies and groups.

The first poster map juxtaposes the flood and landslide experiences of Metro Manila and Central Luzon, historically acknowledged as floodplains and swamp areas in Luzon, and the infrastructure responses through the decades. The visual swings to the east coast of Luzon, a mountainous area with steep slopes, valleys, and large rivers, which faces the Pacific Ocean and absorbs firsthand the frontal assault of 10 or more typhoons annually. The locations of settlement areas for housing and agriculture along this coast bear the evidence for the massive losses in lives and property during typhoons and flashfloods.

The second poster map is a simplified attempt to explain the various processes and elements that contribute to floods and landslides. Infiltration, value of forests in providing ecological services, flood and landslide occurrence, mass wasting, liquefaction, storm events are graphically depicted. The poster ends with a checklist of information that needs to be gathered and analyzed in the event of a flood and landslide.

The third poster map illustrates what happened, the elements that contributed to the localized experience; the history of floods and changes in fluvial lands, forest cover changes and an indicative flood potential map. One poster is of the Real, Infanta and General Nakar area and another of the Dingalan and Gabaldon area.

The fourth poster map is also done individually for the two areas, listing short, medium and long-term recommendations. It provides information on current initiatives of the local government units and other assisting groups that emerged from discussions.

These are initial discussions and orientations in communities and local governments that try to bring together the different information that people often find too diverse to integrate themselves and to clarify a coherent and understandable path forward.