Republic of the Philippines

Department of Education
Region V
Division of Sorsogon
Biriran National High School
Biriran, Juban, Sorsogon

TYPHOON RESILIENCY OF BARANGAY BIRIRAN, JUBAN,

SORSOGON

A RESEARCH PAPER SUBMITTED

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE PRACTICAL REASEARCH-I SUBJECT

Kenjie Herrero

2025

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 CHAPTER I

THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING

Introduction

The Philippines, being located within the Pacific Ocean, has been

classified among the top ten hazardous countries in the world on account of

numerous natural hydrometeorological hazards to which it is constantly exposed.

The Philippines is described as not only lying within the earthquake-prone

Pacific Ring of Fire, but also along the typhoons formed by the Western Pacific.

The Philippines sits along the path of tropical storms that ravage the islands at

the average rate of 20 typhoons and 5 super typhoons each year (Philippine

Daily Inquirer, 2013). Climate change has intensified tropical cyclones, resulting

in several recent catastrophic hurricanes and typhoons. Such disasters impose

threats on populous coastal, urban areas, and therefore, understanding and

predicting human movements plays a critical role in evaluating vulnerability and

resilience of human society and developing plans for disaster evacuation,

response and relief.

The municipality of Juban in the province of Sorsogon, Philippines is

frequently battered by typhoons. Super Typhoon Kristine is one of the most

powerful typhoons that hit Biriran and impacted a large number of individuals.

The houses was annihilated on the ground by the powerful wind and heavy rain

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that caused floods and thus, many people went hungry and died due to a lack of

food.

Raising awareness to the constituents is a reason in proceeding to this

study so that the delivery of services and promotion of transparency and

accountability in barangay governance is always present.

For these reasons the researcher is desirous of knowing the effects and

scope of the typhoons and how the community cope-up with this dilemma.

Statement of the Problem

This study attempted to find out practices of the Barangay Biriran, Juban,

Sorsogon in dealing with the wrath of typhoons. It also answered the following

sub-problem;

1. What are the mitigating ways the Biriran community do in preparation for

the upcoming typhoon?

2. What are the impacts of typhoon to the community of Biriran?

3. What are the actions delivered by the barangay council and other

agencies after typhoon?

4. How did the community cope-up with the devastation of typhoons?

Scope and Delimitation

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 This study will use a stratified random sampling method and qualitative

descriptive research. Furthermore, this study is limited to the discussion of the

following: the mitigating ways the Biriran community do in preparation for the

upcoming typhoon, the impacts of typhoon to the community of Biriran, the

actions delivered by the barangay council and other agencies after typhoon, and

the practices of community in coping-up with the devastation of typhoons.

Significance of the Study

This study is undertaken with anticipation that the findings will be

beneficial to the following;

Teachers. This study will provide them a better understanding of

community preparedness and how it helps through the support system of

barangay council.

Students. The result of this study will serve as their guide in assessing

the importance of barangay preparedness that will bring them understanding on

how community must do in their barangay to maintain its resiliency after

typhoons.

Barangay Residence. This will help them understand the importance of

being resilient that will establish positive-thinking and good relationship within the

community and will help them uplift the morale and spirit among neighbors.

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 The Barangay Local Government. Outcome of this study will be

beneficial to the BLGU- DRRMC for them to amplify their knowledge regarding

settlement and resolution in the barangay and will establish resilient governance

that may help the locality to understand the importance of disaster preparedness

and morale-boosting.

Future Researchers. The result of the study will be the springboard from

which future similar studies may be conducted to come up with new ideas and be

a benchmark regarding typhoon resiliency.

Conceptual Framework

The researchers used the research descriptive-qualitative design. This

study is thoroughly descriptive and informative in nature.

Figure 1 shows the process in this study using the Input-Process-Output

(IPO) Model for Program Designing by Lewis & Smith (in Albano, Go and

Posecion, 2011) which became the design of the study. This clearly

demonstrates the step-by-step procedure followed by the researchers to be able

to come up with expected output of the study. The conceptual paradigm

illustrates an outline from Input – where all the needed data were gathered.

These data were the profile from the semi-structured interview. These data

gathered were assessed in the Process. The interviewt was administered, and

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the result were analyzed and interpreted yielding the Output of the study which

was the proposed solution or intervention.

INPUT PROCESS OUTPUT

1. What are the mitigating

ways the Biriran
community do in
preparation for the
1. Observation
upcoming typhoon?
2. What are the impacts of 2. Interview
typhoon to the
3. Documentation Based on the
community of Biriran? conclusion, the
3. What are the actions 4. Presentation of following
delivered by the recommendations
Results were given:
barangay council and
other agencies after 5. Interpretation
typhoon?
and Analysis of
4. How did the community
cope-up with the Data
devastation of
typhoons?

FEEDBACK

Figure 1: CONCEPTUAL PARADIGM

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Definition of Terms

For better understanding of the study, the following words are defined

conceptually and operationally.

Typhoon. A hurricane occurring especially in the region of the Philippines

or the China Sea.

Resiliency. The ability to recover from or adjust easily to adversity or

change.

Barangay. Formerly referred to as barrio, is the smallest administrative

division in the Philippine government system. It is the smallest unit in the

municipality.

Biriran. One of the barngay in the municipality of Juban in the province of

Sorsogon . It is also the setting of the study.

Dilemma. A difficult or persistent problem such as the effects of wrath of

typhoons.

Disaster Risk Reduction and Management. Also known as DRRM, is

the department in the Local Government that takes action before, during and

after disasters. They are concerned about the proper implementation of

programs with regards to disaster-related matters.

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 CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

To have a wide-ranging understanding of this research, the researcher

referred to several literature and studies that are related to the present study.

Related Literature

With the Philippines devastated after experiencing four typhoons in the

span of two-weeks during late October and early November, people are now

calling on the government to stop romanticizing “Filipino resilience” and to create

better natural disaster protocols. Though there has been governmental aid to the

citizens, not enough has been done; they refuse to push for real actions towards

climate change because the media labels them as having “Filipino resiliency.”

According to Krista Orejudos (2020), if you’re unfamiliar, the term “Filipino

Resiliency” means that Filipinos, especially the victims of these natural disasters,

can overcome any hardship and are idolized for doing so. It implies that the

victims don’t need any outside help when they have “resiliency” on their side, but

this comes at the expense of their trauma. Glorification and romanticization of

this term do not alleviate or reward the harsh realities that victims face daily.

This further normalizes the vicious cycle of home displacement every time

another typhoon comes their way. It undermines their entire socioeconomic

status because the victims are now accountable for their safety despite how they

may not have the resources to survive. What’s even more ironic is that Filipinos

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are seen as weak if they were given support or if they sought aid. Since they are

subjected to this idea of resiliency, it has also become an admirable

“characteristic” of Filipino identity and it is their “duty” to live up to its name—

anything less of showing resilience would be shameful to Filipino culture.

However, this term is only an excuse to cover up the lack of crisis

management and government preparedness when dealing with recent situations

like Typhoon Goni and Typhoon Ulysses. It is nothing new that the Philippine

government has done before; they have long exploited its peoples’ strong will

and spirit to avoid admitting government failure.

Gab Mejia (2020) also stated that the Philippines has never really

rebounded from the socioeconomic impacts and implications of such negligence,

ill-preparedness, and incompetence of our leaders and government, even

considering the existence or non-existence of agencies such as the NDRRMC or

National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, and the recently

shut down Project Noah of the Department of Science and Technology due to

“lack of funds.” If we are indeed resilient, we should never have had more than

6,000 deaths and $2.98 billion lost from the onslaught of Super Typhoon

Yolanda. Seven long years after, the provinces of Samar and Leyte are still one

of the most underserved provinces in the Philippines that are still lacking basic

needs such as clean accessible water and reliable energy — still struggling from

the aftermath and trauma that should never be forgotten. Yet one could point out

that one of the most developed countries like Japan was not prepared for the

destructive tidal wave brought on by the 9.1-magnitude earthquake in 2011,

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claiming 20,000 lives. Yet if you look at it today, the Japanese city of Ishinomaki

in the Miyagi prefecture that the earthquake had devastated is now completely

thriving. People have returned home, communities have been rebuilt and Tohoku

is as great as it was before, but now more prepared and better. This is what true

resiliency is — not the Filipino resiliency we know and have been credited with

for as long as we can remember. Where are the thousands of displaced Filipinos

as a result of the ashfall from the recent Taal eruption? Has anyone asked how

they are doing, or does our media only care about the banalities of these stories

of resilience? There is imminent danger and a deadlier cost in believing our

misconstrued understanding and delusional tale of what it means to be resilient

in our country. A term we have yet to redefine and relearn in this urgent and

crucial time.

He added that we have never truly learned from all the destruction and

deaths that have regularly visited our coastal communities and farming towns,

the latest of which was the havoc havoc brought by Super Typhoon “Rolly” to the

Bicol and Batangas regions last week. We are a battered and traumatized state,

far away from the resiliency that a tall rising verdant bamboo can wholly display.

And even if it is true that the most powerful president cannot stop the strongest

forces of nature, we can all agree that a great leader can still be prepared for it —

which in our reality, we have never had and never will have.

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 Moreover, the government has fallen short on also taking accountability

for their environmental negligence. They have ignored their current cries for help

while islands, cities, and provinces are nearly destroyed by Typhoon Goni and

Typhoon Ulysses. It is only now that senators and lawyers are calling on higher

positions of power to “stop romanticizing Filipino resilience. Filipinos are indeed

strong but some disasters could have been avoided,” as said by Senator Grace

Poe.

The way Ojedus (2020) see it though, the media and the government must

challenge this dominant narrative by redefining it as building Filipino resiliency on

all levels of institutional capacities. This new discourse allows both the people

and the government to work together in adapting and recovering from natural

disasters as well as empowering the voices of the victims. The foundation of

leadership and trust will also be improved in local and national regions of

government. Though it will not be easy to erase the negative consequences of

“Filipino resiliency” because it stemmed from governmental neglect and media

exploitation; it is a new start to truly encompassing what it means to be a

“resilient Filipino.”

Related Studies

Based on J.L. McBride (2010), climate change has intensified tropical

cyclones, resulting in several recent catastrophic hurricanes and typhoons. Such

disasters impose threats on populous coastal urban areas, and therefore,

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understanding and predicting human movements plays a critical role in

evaluating vulnerability and resilience of human society and developing plans for

disaster evacuation, response and relief. Despite its critical role, limited research

has focused on tropical cyclones and their influence on human mobility. Here,

they studied how severe tropical storms could influence human mobility patterns

in coastal urban populations using individuals’ movement data collected from

Twitter. They selected 5 significant tropical storms and examined their influences

on 8 urban areas. They analyzed the human movement data before, during, and

after each event, comparing the perturbed movement data to movement data

from steady states. They also used different statistical analysis approaches to

quantify the strength and duration of human mobility perturbation. The results

suggest that tropical cyclones can significantly perturb human movements, and

human mobility experienced different magnitudes in different cases. They also

found that power-law still governed human movements in spite of the

perturbations.

Song J, Huang B, Li R (2018) in assessing local resilience to typhoon

disasters, building communities’ resilience to natural weather hazards requires

the appropriate assessment of such capabilities. The resilience of a community is

affected not only by social, economic, and infrastructural factors but also by

natural factors (including both site characteristics and the intensity and frequency

of events). To date, studies of natural factors have tended to draw on annual

censuses and to use aggregated data, thus allowing only a limited understanding

of site-specific hot or cold spots of resilience. To improve this situation, they

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carried out a comprehensive assessment of resilience to typhoon disasters in

Nansha district, Guangzhou, China. They measured disaster resilience on 1×1-

km grid units with respect to socioeconomic and infrastructural dimensions using

a set of variables and also estimated natural factors in a detailed manner with a

meteorological modeling tool, the Weather Research and Forecast model. They

selected typhoon samples over the past 10 years, simulated the maximum

typhoon-borne strong winds and precipitation of each sample, and predicted the

wind speed and precipitation volume at the 100-year return-level on the basis of

extreme value analysis. As a result, a composite resilience index was devised by

combining factors in different domains using factor analysis coupled with the

analytic hierarchy process. Resilience mapping using this composite resilience

index allows local governments and planners to identify potential hot or cold

spots of resilience and the dominant factors in particular locations, thereby

assisting them in making more rational site-specific measures to improve local

resilience to future typhoon disasters.

Another research was done by Acosta (2018). The purpose of their paper

is to evaluate the effect of a community-based resilience intervention for Filipino

displaced survivors of Super Typhoon Haiyan. The researchers used a quasi-

experimental and mixed-method design comparing a treatment group with a

control group across three time periods: before, immediately after, and six

months after the intervention. Findings Results showed significant improvements

in survivors’ anxiety scores and resilience scores compared to those who did not

undergo the program. However, although there was an increase in adaptive

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coping of participants immediately after the program, there was a reduction in

adaptive coping behaviors for all groups six months after the program. Focus

group discussions revealed this might be due to significant environmental

challenges among displaced survivors. A limitation of the study was the lack of

randomization and a small sample size due to attrition. The study highlights the

positive effects of culturally adapted group interventions. The results suggest the

importance of a systemic approach to enabling the recovery of displaced

survivors in developing countries. This study provides evidence for a resilience

intervention developed in a low-middle income country in Southeast Asia.

Gap Bridge by the Study

Some similar studies on Typhoon Resiliency have been conducted which

the researcher came across, they are included in the review of related studies

but the researchers are so certain that not one study on The Typhoon Resiliency

of Barangay Biriran in the municipality of Juban, province of Sorsogon. They may

be related in some aspect of the study but differ in scope and respondents.

In this study, the variables are focused on Typhoon Resiliency of

Barangay, Juban, Sorsogon, the intervention offered and the plan of action. This

is the gap that is to be bridged by the study.

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 CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

This section describes the methods used in the study. It includes

the research design, the sample, the instruments, data collection procedure, and

data analysis procedure.

Research Design

The study uses a qualitative research design to investigate the

effect of habitual absenteeism on the academic performance of students at

Sablayan High School. The qualitative research approach is being used in the

study to understand the situation of the residents of Biriran before, during and

after a calamity. This approach helps gather detailed explanations from the

respondents about their experiences and challenges related to typhon disasters.

Sources of Data

The primary source of data was the respondents’ answers to individual

interviews. The secondary data were taken from textbooks, websites, published

and unpublished thesis and other printed materials.

Respondents of the Study

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 The participants in this study are from Purok 1-7 of barangay

Biriran, Juban, Sorsogon who have the highest number of absences in each

section. The researchers will use stratified random sampling to ensure that

respondents from different Puroks are included. In each Purok, five (5)

respondents will be selected randomly. The total number of respondents will be

thirty-five (35) in total.

Research Instrument

The researchers will use semi-structured interviews as the main tool for

gathering data. This means the researcher asks both prepared the follow-up

questions to get the desired answers. An interview was chosen by the researcher

because it gathers the data faster than any other tools. The interview is

composed of several pre-structured questions that will answer the following sub-

problems: the mitigating ways the Biriran community do in preparation for the

upcoming typhoon, the impacts of typhoon to the community of Biriran, the

actions delivered by the barangay council and other agencies after typhoon, and

the practices of community in coping-up with the devastation of typhoons.

Data Collection Procedure

The researcher will first seek formal permission from the school

principal and the PR 1 teacher to conduct the study within the barangay of

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Biriran. A letter for permission will be sent stating the objectives and purpose of

the study to the Barangay Chairman. Once approval is granted, the researchers

will select the participants. After getting the respondents, we will schedule

interviews and explain the purpose of the study, their rights as a participant, and

the confidentiality of their responses. During the interviews, resdents will be

encouraged to share their experiences and thoughts in a comfortable and

respectful setting. All responses will be recorded and analyzed to identify

common reasons for absenteeism and possible solutions.

Data Gathering Procedure

In this study, qualitative data analysis will be conducted to explore

the experiences and perspectives of students regarding typhoon and its impact

on their lives. This study will employ thematic analysis to examine the data

collected from the data collected from the semi-structured interviews. Thematic

analysis is suitable for qualitative research as it helps identify patterns and key

themes from the selected participants’ responses. First, all recorded or collected

interviews will be written down exactly without any corrections or changes to

ensure that participants’ responses are accurate. The researcher will then read

carefully the collected data from the participants to avoid any errors. A coding

system will be applied to identify and label key themes and patterns. These

codes will then be grouped into boarder themes that represent students’

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experiences with habitual absenteeism. Finally, the themes will be analyzed and

interpreted in relation to the research questions.

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