This book looks at how the multiplicity of formal and informal normative
systems that actualize the post-disaster recovery goals of the country's
Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010 has resulted in the
inadequate housing and relocation of Typhoon Ketsana victims in the
Philippines. Using the sociological and normative pluralist perspectives
and the case study method, it evaluates the level of conformity of the
components of the housing project according to international conventions
and legal standards. It highlights the negative unintended consequences
caused by the complex normative regimes of various competing
stakeholders, rigid real estate regulation, and the unscrupulous
involvement of powerful and 'corrupt' real estate developers and housing
groups as largely contributing to the project's deviation from the law's
proactive objectives. This book attempts to promote the socio-legal
perspectives which have long been overlooked in disaster research.
Finally, it invites policymakers to enact a comprehensive disaster law
and create a one-stop disaster management agency to improve the
long-term rehabilitation of disaster victims in developing countries
such as the Philippines.