Residents of Sitio Bangkal, Dayhagon, Medellin, Cebu, wait along the road for help from passing motorists on October 2, 2025. The group appealed for water and food, two days after the magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck northern Cebu. Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News
MANILA — The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) called on government agencies and the private sector involved in humanitarian efforts to ensure “well-considered” and “timely” disaster response for vulnerable groups, including persons with disabilities, children, the elderly, and the socio-economically disadvantaged.
In a statement on the recent earthquake in Cebu and nearby provinces, the CHR also expressed support for all relief and rehabilitation efforts for the vulnerable groups.
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“The Commission calls on government agencies and the private sector involved in humanitarian efforts on the ground to ensure that responses for the persons with disabilities, the sick, the children and youth, the elderly, and the socio-economically disadvantaged be well-considered, culturally-sensitive, and timely. Let us allow the human rights lens to guide our disaster relief to the vulnerable groups, in particular, so that can we, as a society, claim that we are indeed keepers of even the less privileged,” the CHR said.
In making the call, the commission noted that under the United Nations Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement (UNGPID), people displaced by natural disasters “have the right to protection, assistance, and durable solutions that respect their dignity and human rights.”
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“The UNGPID provides that the State holds the primary duty to provide assistance during displacement, and to ensure support through the stages of return, resettlement, and reintegration, in the shared responsibility among other humanitarian actors,” the CHR said.
The CHR also noted conditions and infrastructure for preparedness for vulnerable groups “are not often adequate,” and so these individuals may be “left behind to fend for themselves.”
A magnitude 6.9 earthquake rocked Cebu on Tuesday, leaving at least 68 dead.
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