Taiwan and the Philippines Sign MOU on Disaster Management

Taiwan and the Philippines signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Monday to exchange experience dealing with landslides and debris flow disasters.

The MOU will facilitate future research on resilience technology for landslides and debris flow disasters, which are landslides that occur in dry weather conditions. This includes early warning systems, soil and water conservation technology, and the use of Artificial Intelligence for disaster management.

Wallce Chow and Silvestre III Hernando Bello signed the MOU at a ceremony as Taiwan’s representative to the Philippines and the Philippines representative of the Manila Economic and Cultural Office in Taiwan. The ceremony followed a Taiwan Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) workshop, where Filipino experts from the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) shared their experiences dealing with landslide and debris flow disasters.

Chow said during the ceremony that Taiwan and the Philippines are both prone to typhoons, earthquakes and landslides, because the two countries are so close to one another. Taiwan’s southernmost city, Kaohsiung, is less than 800 kilometers north of the Philippines.

The MOU is also intended to increase exchange between the Philippines and Taiwan, according to the press release. These efforts come in light of increasing pressure on the Philippines by China in the South China Sea and of similar rising tensions between Taiwan and China near the waters off of Kinmen. The Philippines also recently conducted joint drills with the United States off of Southern Taiwan, and President Biden recently signed a joint statement with Japan and the Philippines to affirm stability in the Indo-Pacific including in the Taiwan strait.

MOA has worked closely with PHIVOLCS in recent years to share insights on disaster management, and the possibility of such an MOU has been in the works since 2022.

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TNL Editor: Kim Chan (@thenewslensintl)

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