EXTREME VERSUS QUOTIDIAN: ADDRESSING TEMPORAL DICHOTOMIES IN PHILIPPINE DISASTER MANAGEMENT FRANCISCO G. DELFIN JR. 1 * AND JEAN-CHRISTOPHE GAILLARD 2 1 University of the Philippines, The Philippines 2 Universite ´ de Grenoble, France SUMMARY Brief narratives of two recent events in Luzon island—a flashflood in Angeles City and an eruption of Mayon volcano— underscore the disparity between natural hazards as amplifiers of everyday hardship for many Filipinos and the Philippine disaster management system’s orientation towards extreme-event response. Three major factors contribute to this dichotomy. First, population dynamics combined with the lack of access to resources compels poor Filipinos to live and work in hazardous areas, discounting risk from extreme natural events to focus on daily needs. Second, the institutional setting of the country’s disaster management within the military establishment makes it difficult, though not impossible, to focus and address the underlying causes of vulnerability. Third, existing modes of funding disaster expenditures are all biased towards immediate response rather than long-term risk-reduction. The implications of these findings to disaster management and research in the Philippines are identified. Copyright # 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. key words — natural hazards; people’s vulnerability; disaster management; Philippines Contingencies that afflict our country and which we should plan include earthquakes, typhoons, floods, volcanic eruptions, storm surges, epidemics, serious health problems, influx of refugees and even power outages and water supply problems... The extraordinary and exceptional nature of these emergencies can be mitigated if not prevented through effective contingency planning. (UNHCR/NDCC (2003), Contingency Planning for Emergencies — A Manual for Local Government Units, p. 11). Two fishermen were killed while three others were missing when a vintage bomb recovered from a sunken warship exploded Sunday evening here [Batangas]... Investigators said the victims found four vintage bombs and had planned to sell the metal scraps by cutting the bombs into pieces. (Anonymous, Philippine Star, 29 August 2006, p. A-24). INTRODUCTION Disasters studies have long focused on the extreme dimension of natural hazards. G. F. White’s (1945) pioneering dissertation considered natural hazards as rare in time and extreme in magnitude. Peoples’ adjustment, according to White, depends on how they perceive the risk from these rare and extreme threats, giving rise to the perception-adjustment or so called dominant disaster paradigm. Individuals or societies with low-risk perception public administration and development Public Admin. Dev. 28, 190–199 (2008) Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/pad.493 *Correspondence to: Francisco G. Delfin, Jr., University of the Philippines–National College of Public Administration and Governance, Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines–1101. E-mail: fgdelfin@up.edu.ph Copyright # 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.