as helping the pakistani community to find a voice the stories we don't often hear told by the people who live them undocumented and under attack this is zero on al-jazeera the largest multi-sport event on the continent and the second largest in the world the asian games will host thousands of after competing across a mix of traditional and the lympics sports follow us for all the news and updates from jakarta the hosting city of the eighteenth asian games on al-jazeera. across the philippines badly nature's fury is a part of life and death. floods earthquakes and thai food ravaged this nation with terrifying frequency. but amid the chaos and devastation some of the country's largest corporations are

finding golden opportunities to profit from the misery. and steve check out on this edition of one east we investigate the rise of disaster capitalism in the philippines. the. the philippine island of leyte is no stranger to catastrophe. i was here five years ago when it was still reeling from super typhoon haiyan the strongest storm to ever hit the country. more than six thousand people were killed and four million displaced by high and spirit. across like say island towns.

flashing. bodies buried in the rubble to now it was one of the hardest hit cities it came in so fast it seemed i first met takes on in the aftermath of the disaster. his hometown was in crisis. hundreds were dead and the city destroyed. the town hall was transformed into an emergency medical center. was it's really good to see you again it's a very different scene today so this is your m.p. and public space redeveloped and saying exactly that reading room in the town so we held proudly shows me till now owns a new town square and efi theater sporting complex and memorial five have been built with the help of corporate investors it's an amazing transformation

considering the area was a temporary mold during the crisis yeah there are over six hundred bodies. here in that massive grave but they want the people to be comfortable back again and here again is not something you know that the children should be scared i know and i'm very happy that life here and i want. resilience is a point of pride and peled says it's the island's people who deserve much of the credit for its response. to it. i am very proud of the people of the no one and the people of late. but there is another factor driving the recovery of towns across like a big corporation. i truly believe that the partnership in the private and government sector is very important it has to be there and that's why there

have been a patient here in the fight and i won in life in general wes weston very fast. storm survivors do still need help but insists poverty rates are dropping thanks to the corporate sector. a small investments come to. market the need. for them to hire local folks to work for. create. some critics of. the building of communities has been very investment oriented and communities are being denied access to the wealth that's being generated as a mayor of one of these communities is that a fair observation i do not think so go and the. investment is there for development often. again it's it's part of the strategy. tartarin higher marks a dramatic change in how the philippines responded to disaster. for the first time

ever the government twenty private corporations to lead rebuilding nobody was. antonio in charge of the national reconstruction agency. to help high end survivors . with over thirty five years of corporate experience. courage his boss. to tap the country's biggest companies for help. with my experience in the prey be at stake their main network was why it was practical to be lean with or libido can grow moderated many libyans so everybody was separate so when i called upon them and saying we need you here to help they say hey we're all what do we really do here just barely asked how and where and where and how much that's where we were able to reach them believe last year with the brainchild of the private sector response it was a perk i'm from the pravy sektor i'm a realist beat practitioner and him absolutely no experience in government when

the inside. invited me on a one day lottery. rezai bella. n.g.o.s which more misses the rebuilding of two more food affected areas. she says the private sector was keen to cash in on the disaster. on high and actually it was the beginning of a very very bad reconstruction program. the plan is focused on infrastructure because infrastructure is more. than building houses and building reception and sites they want to profit from it and that's this essay capitalism at its finest. disaster capitalism is a term that describes big companies exploiting catastrophe for profits and rezai oh says here in one of the world's most disaster prone nations the government hopes

the doors actually in the philippines sense this is all way of feeling local government getting its share of the loot if i should say that getting its share off how the private corporations are making money out of after the shock these people have after the disaster and there they're really making a killing. while local governments deny directly profiting from the disaster it appears companies are benefiting from official policies. soon after typhoon haiyan struck the philippines government declared no build it would be allowed with even fourteen inches of the coastline. but did they change the groups companies have been given the green light to build businesses on this prime real estate. if you are really concerned about the future hazards of another storm surge then why would you build something here this is

a disaster capitalism finished been stabbed. survive this week the housing band and rebuilt their lives along the coast are receiving a big nurses here it's the community but the government calls them informal dwellers so it's so easy to remove them get them out of the way so that corporations can cash in on our can speculate on the land value and eventually set the earth. across the central philippines the government promised to build two hundred five thousand houses the storm survivors. but only a third of them have been completed. at ridgeview park ten kilometers inland we visit one of the few new housing starts on life a. built in twenty fifth date residents tell result that many of these homes have already formed into disrepair. that. their mother.

i'm still big donors a little. enough that a bus will send us on the oh. let me see a lot of us a wall of bottom you need to. let you see the houses there really subs than the construction is substandard electricity is connected to a main post so it's not really available in the houses our water is being fetched from a tank it's being delivered by a private corporation. brazoria says the biggest problem is these housing estates a true remorse far away from public transport business areas and the coastline a lot of them used to be fisher folk and but now they don't have they don't have the ocean they don't have their boats so they just have odd jobs. this place isn't

there after social services is there after livelihood opportunities it's not what a relegation site should be. while housing for storing survive this appears to be a low priority and construction of these twenty seven cars. is going full steam ahead. locals called it the great wall looks like sorry but bizzare or unimpressed arguing such projects only benefit the construction companies building and she says it won't even do its job of protecting people from terrifying storm surges in the future first of all it's to know. the highest it can get before me there's storm surge beach today story high. actually they had to kill about one hundred hectares of mangroves which are natural storm surge protectors just to build the water so that's crazy they have been actually making

the people more vulnerable to this asters made their own policies and by their own profiteering. dimmu and tony defends the reconstruction goals of corporations saying in the aftermath of tossing high on government departments fast enough the problem is the government sector not doing its job. it must be brave be to take the look team in we beera you know all of their equipment manpower chap bush coming in their generators they were there immediately because they had the resources you know everybody with gravy planes from deprave they would just say if you need our planes and boats just holer in you know we will make them available if we have to go through the go red machinery just to get a plane ticket when the bridge get anywhere so that's how we could drive there you

know all over the place they just wanted to help. forty four feel a pain provinces across nineteen islands were affected by typhoon haiyan on. the government divided up the crisis and allowed corporations to choose which areas they wanted to rebuild so that's why i proposed that we grew up in the midwest people believe in to twenty four part ok it's smart to be organized and given by one of them briefly by the corporate sponsor because this is normally what we do also in the very big real estate development where businesses promised anything in return for helping with the recovery process and cyril known it on at the time what mechanisms were in place hold them accountable given this was the first time that the private sector was involved in disaster recovery at that particular. well they

were there were much there wasn't any existing make any use in then. west of life a secret gone is a tiny island boasting pristine picture postcard. after high on one of the nation's largest business conglomerates. volunteered to help rebuild . it already had plans to turn the island into a multi million dollar eco tourism destination. they caught it with city car a company which already owns seventy percent of the island and has operated resorts here for nearly fifty years. in the philippines take a long if not have care about falling and from here if they need to think why. about six thousand people used to cold sick of dawn. until they were displaced by

the storm. now only a few scattered villages remind. village chief when a friend gonzales says many were blocked by the two companies from returning. some of those who did return and now forced to squaws on a small piece of public land people are being hurt people without any option so in. those parts of three show. he says the remaining residents are being threatened with eviction so that a jala can build new tourist benches. you know yachting hours ago and i thought again what happened in city gone as a disaster capitalism they took advantage of the situation after the tragedy with many lies and they are the only one benefiting and they left the people here with nothing and they are only thinking of themselves if you let. a month before high on struck

a government agriculture scheme granted passes of farmland to more than two hundred households the result company city co contested the decision in court because it would have forced them to hand over a third of their land. but when the typhoon hit us it changed everything we have for it alleges that with almost all the homes and buildings destroyed city code and the jala had the real estate opportunity of a lifetime. you can see a typhoon coming and you know it will destroy you in a day but you can't see how very are going to destroy you about in a marvel it's difficult to fight these people mostly for they have a strong connection with our government. dinello antonio defends the company's actions eleven of these people were illegal settlers they're ok what. what bill and the private sector who own the properties who didn't do high end good for them i

mean they got wiped out so it of course when they're no longer their private sector would grow big beer or property city it was then it be sastre that they created. this is. we've uncovered legal documents that show a yella and cynical asked the villages to surrender any claims to their land and leaves to go. in return they would receive a three thousand dollars cash payout or one hundred dollars and a house on a nearby island. raul ramos a village elder represented the residents in negotiations with the companies the dock unbutton they should that if they shun. the people are starving people or they are very angry or they are they have no source of livelihood there are more to it all. smushed by the by born. even though

a yella as a reconstruction partner was supposed to help the island's residents round alleges the company only gave them a good rations so they would be forced out the appeal to. a systems the because the old guys. ya lot will give us a good this is a good thing but what they did not get. fisherman and it's ito mecurio took the money because he thought it would be enough to feed his six children and build a new one but he says like most villages who took the deal he was poor again after just a few months. in hindsight was this a good deal to sign. and i mean when i regret signing that you know you know it i took a chance on it out of desperation because it was so bad i felt it i mean but i have nothing left. in two thousand and fourteen

a year after the storm here annecy told took a job back in secure gone as a security guard for a yellow and city code. ledges the guards harassed and attacks storm survivors who refused to leave and she too recalls one disturbing incident eleven in a gay bar in a alister like they destroyed their house and told him to leave. the even fired a gun next to a pregnant woman. he also confirms the two companies wrote this memo instructing all nearby boat operators and village chiefs to stop supplying building materials to secure gone storm survivors and a sister alleges that security guards like him we'd given similar instructions and says it was a way to pressure the villages to give up their land. and government stepped down and yes we did see this memo and. we've made sure to. blocked the books so nobody

could bring in a man the building materials to rebuild the houses i am an honest i numbers are not born on my body at all material we didn't let it including cement i mean we didn't we allowed into the poor house i mean about that. i don't know that most of the supplies were coming from n.g.o.s but we did not allow it. after i saw this i felt very embarrassed about and i wanted was i was doing a lot not one and because i knew a lot of my relatives had houses that were destroyed just like mine. it was innocent but i mean you know but i still followed the order that about my way. as tensions on the island rose government agencies struck a compromise deal if the villages gave unconditional support to yala and city coast tourist benches the companies would supply a resettlement sized farmland and more than seven hundred thousand dollars for

a work training scheme. as soon as the deal was signed a yellow started building a new resource and the airport. residents allege that neither a yella nor city car have delivered on any of their promises to the island so they're coming out and will still need a lot of military duty to be a little bit is normal and that the bottom up a look that's not going to like with them because if they're not there we are a couple of minutes ago see one of our cattle and so they came out with an agreement but that agreement was useless. well that is only a benefit of their own development but they've been a pretty. well i'm a. city go decline an interview but in a recent response they call the allegations false and malicious but in the capital

manila i. do agree to speak to us at their main office i meet with one of the company's directors. he heads the philanthropic the company. do yawa exploits its position as i really have billets. to attain prime real estate on think a go i think the exploit might be too harsh for us because we are very friends and event between our plans and views are actually shared for the night channels particularly for the local government units actually such a disaster is way beyond business initiative now yana skis actually what we saw was an opportunity to respond to those who are affected and. i show him the lessons written by city co and a gala the ota bartz to stop delivering supplies to storm survivors less than a year after typhoon high on. what i just don't understand is i was there during

high on during this time of the land many. i just don't understand how it is responsible behavior for you know anyone but i totally agree with you but again i would want to understand where the context of how it was being offered in such a fusion but if you so happen or you investigate this directly well i know that he will extend it to us and if it really affects our our own organisation definitely will look into that i said give this a bill when we asked if the company will deliver on its agreement to the residents something that has not happened for the last four years he gave a very carefully worded response definitely really uphold the agreement. that are within the legal bombs that we have and three now if there will be certain developments then we will keep our options open to determine what is mutually beneficial to all stakeholders. i yell and continues to be on the front line of

disaster recovery through its involvement in the philippine disaster resilience foundation oh paty r.f. . praised by the un the foundation opened the world's first private emergency operation santa i brought a teenager filipino business and a members of the organization together they have partnered with the government to provide disaster education programs deliver relief and coordination national emergency responses the president of the foundation which maly sees it as a model of corporate response that can be used in other developing countries it's not just groundbreaking for the philippines it's groundbreaking for the rest of the world it's become a rule model actually for everybody else. but critics described the p.t. r.f. as another form of disaster capitalism actually the p.b.r.

aphis it has to be rented by the local governments it's not them but never lend act on the part of the i.r.s. it's something it's a structure just like any other infrastructure and when you use it the government has to pay for it you can call it public private partnership but it's really the government subsidizing the profits of the corporation in that painting r.f. just an eighteen y. for companies to further entrenched themselves in the profits of doing infrastructure after the disaster i don't think i don't see that at all i know that there's a natural suspicion particularly in the part of the many tarion sector other parts there's a natural skepticism perhaps towards business there's always a gain or a profit motive behind it but he concedes there are incentives well for one thing they want to be seen as good corporate citizens so it's good public relations the

other element is that for a company it makes good business sense to get the court to be up and running to get their customers able to pay for their services and so there is an element of self-interest there. meanwhile been see could go on community leader with a friend gonzalez these corporations are left in charge of disaster relief what happened on his on and will happen again to other communities. like oh my god it's not fair that this happens if they're like your island they will do anything they can to change the people out over the old interests. but he says the island's residents will not give up. and we are we have no choice but to fix it up and it is our rights that we are fighting for that so. we should not just surrender our humanity dignity to the rich people. because if we give this to them

what is left for us. nothing. when the philippines is he by disaster. attention is focused on the horrible. but for many survivors here the hardship continues for years often. in a poor archipelago at the mercy of typhoon and tide. china is keen to win friends and influence in need oil rich middle east business spark the long turn plan of china to secure its resources for the future the i.m.f. said region as a whole now is expected to grow we bring you the stories that are shaping the economic world we live in counting the cost on al-jazeera.

this is al-jazeera. hello i'm down jordan this is the news hour live from doha coming up in the next sixty minutes. we're committed to a whole of government effort to change the iranian regime's behavior secretary of state mike pompei announces a new special brew to run policy with iran after u.s. withdrawal from the nuclear deal plus we are not going to be the media strikes back editors around the u.s. and the world defend their journalism against attacks by donald trump. because. the queen of soul aretha franklin has died in detroit at the age of seventy six.

indians pay homage to former prime minister atal bihari. who passed away at the age of ninety three a seven day mourning period is now in place. welcome to the program the u.s. has announced a new foreign policy initiative aimed at changing the behavior of the regime in tehran secretary of state might said the white house is forming a task force to coordinate and run its policy on iran while speaking to reporters at the state department he talked about the new initiative. our hope is that one day soon we can reach a new agreement with iran but we must see major changes in the regime's behavior both inside and outside of its borders and jordan has more now from the united nations the u.s. secretary of state mike pompei o has unveiled what is being called the iran action group trying to make certain that all parts of the u.s. government.