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. i'm steve on this edition of one east we investigate the rise of disaster capitalism in the philippines. the. the philippine islands of light 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 a island towns were flattened bodies buried in the rubble to now it was one of the hardest hit cities it came as so fast the same go for us and so us i first met bad pell takes on in the aftermath of the disaster. his home town was in crisis. hundreds were dead or missing and the city destroyed. the town hall was transformed into an emergency medical center. was. it really good the fiord it's a very different scene today so this is your m.p. theater and public space that your brain develops with and say exactly this that reading room. so we polled probably show. now owns newtown square and

afi theater sporting complex and memorial sites 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 the grave but they want the people to be comfortable. here. not something you know that the children should be scared of you know and i'm very happy that life here in the now and. resilience is a point of pride. island people who deserve much of the credit for its response. to it. i'm very proud of the people of the no one and the people. but there's another factor driving the recovery of towns across like a big corporation. i truly believe that the partnership of private

and government sector is very important it has to be there and that's why they're. in the fight and i one. question very fast. storm survivors do still need help. call for the rights of dropping thanks to the corporate sector. a small investment company on one part of the need. for them to hire local folks to work for. create jobs for trying. critics have said the building of thailand 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 despite again it's it's part of the strategy.

tartarin marked 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. antonioni was second in charge at 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 it sector my network was why i was practically building with all the meter congressman richard murphy litigants so everybody was a friend so when i called upon them and saying we need you here to help they say hey we're all going to hell just their last how and where and where and how much that's why we were able to reach them pretty fast with the brainchild of the

private sector response yes it was a book i'm from the pravy sektor i'm a realist beat practitioner and hip absolutely no experience in government when. invited me i felt like i won the lottery. n.g.o.s which more misses the rebuilding of typhoon affected areas. she says the private sector was keen to cash in on the disaster. actually it was the beginning of a very very bad reconstruction program. the plan is focused on infrastructure because infrastructure is more lucrative than building houses and building reception and sides 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 resign or uses here in one of the world's most disaster prone nations the government hopes to do is 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 of how the private corporations are making money out of after the shock that these people have after the disaster and they're they're really making a killing. while local governments deny directly profiting from the disaster it appears companies are benefiting from official policies. to touch on high on struck the philippines government declared would be allowed if you've seen the agents of the coastline. what 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 finish beenz that. survive this week the housing bad and rebuilt their lot of so long the coast are receding addiction nurses here it's the community but the government calls them in for modellers so it's so easy to remove them and get them out of the way so that corporations can cash in or 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 estates 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 nintendos a little. enough at a bus to send us on the field by the by oh well the ones any. 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 fetch from a bank it's being delivered by a private corporation. brazoria says the biggest problem is these housing estates a too remote 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 construction of these twenty seven kilometers cebu 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 too low. the highest it can get before me there's a storm surge beach today story high. actually they had to kill about

one hundred hectares of mangroves which are not 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 role 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 team in we beera you know all of their equipment manpower chop bush coming in their generators they were there immediately because they had the resources you know everybody with gravy planes from depraved they would just say if you need our planes and boats

just holer in you know we will make them available and if we have to go through the go ahead 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 be just one pit bull here. 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 parts 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 aiello 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 if it's. in the philippines take a long if not care about falling and from here if they need to think why. about

six thousand people used to cold sick of gone on 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 it's up there to protect. the spur to three show. he says the remaining residents are being threatened with eviction so that yellen 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 it may last. a month before high on struck a government agriculture scheme granted possum's of farmland to more than two hundred households the result company city code contested. the decision in court because it would have forced them to hand over a third of their land. but when the typhoon hit it changed everything we have for it alleges that with almost all the homes and buildings destroyed city 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 you're going to destroy you about in america it's difficult to fight these people in my own experience that they have a strong connection with our government. didn't illo antonio depends the company's actions eleven of these people were illegal settlers they're ok what. what bill in

the private sector who own the properties who didn't do how you and big. i mean they got wiped out so it of course when they're no longer dear brave it sector would grow big. property city it wason it be sastre that they created. this is over wires. we've uncovered legal documents that show a yella and cynical asked the villages to surrender any claims to their land and leave secure gone 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 and by the way they should they said gratian. the people are tired of being bored they are. they are they have law sort of sublimely or 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 wral alleges the company only gave the mega rations so they would be forced down the appeal to. a systems the vehicle. told. 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 it you know i

am 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 yell and pseudocode he alleges 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 were given similar instructions and says it was

a way to pressure the villages to give up their land. and government stepped down a bit yes we received this memo and. we've made sure to. the books when i'm so nobody could bring in a new building materials to rebuild the houses i am an honest i numbers are not born i'm not that we have all material we didn't let it including cement i mean we didn't we allowed into the poor house i mean about 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 and i want to know because i knew a lot of my relatives had houses that were destroyed just like mine. it was you know not but and i mean you know but i still follow the order that about my way. as tensions on the island roads 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 yella 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 flows are coming up and will still need a lot of military duty even a little bit more than that the bottom up a look that's not going to like with them because it is out 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 getting. sick oh

declined 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 the main office i meet with one of the company's directors. he heads the philanthropic of the company. to the jala exploits its position as i really have. to attain prime real estate i think ago 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 tonight channels particularly for the local government units actually such a disaster is way beyond business initiative now on a ski's 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 lamb 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 were the context of how it was being offered in such a fusion but if you saw what happened or you investigate this directly well i know that he will extend it to us and we really affect our organisation there but if you will look into that i see this 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 to 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. yeah like continues to be on the front line of disaster recovery through its involvement in the philippine disaster resilience foundation hope a b.r.f. . praised by the u.n. the foundation opened the world's first private emergency operation center i provide eighteen nature filipino business it's 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 became

a rule model actually for everybody else. but critics describe 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 him 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 the pain ers 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 when 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 sick of god community leader winifred gonzalez these corporations are left in charge of disaster relief what happened on his on and will happen again to other communities. it's not fair that this happens if they 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. the river without a 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. 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. he is a self-proclaimed messenger of god. but his path involves the rape and abuse of his followers one of the gates the fall of one of. our phone. business updates to you by. going places together.

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coming up in the next sixty minutes. we're committed. to. behavior. the u.s. announced the plan to deal with iran after withdrawing from the twenty fifteen nuclear deal. also concerns grow over italy's aging infrastructure following general a bridge collapse and. i it's time to tango

an international festival celebrating the south american dance opens in argentina's capital. i. welcome to the al-jazeera news our thousands of people have been paying tribute to former indian prime minister atal bihari vajpayee by the head of his cremation in new delhi he was the first prime minister from the hindu nationalist b j p by was considered a consensus builder and successfully lead a coalition with multiple smaller parties to try to improve relations with pakistan but at the same time asserted india's nuclear power status ordering tests iran can has more.