ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION 
DIFFERENTIAL VULNERABILITY TO FLOODING IN METRO MANILA: 


PERSPECTIVES OF STREET CHILDREN, THE URBAN POOR AND RESIDENTS 
OF WEALTHY NEIGHBORHOODS 
By DORACIE B. Z0L;ETA-NANTES 


Dissertation Director: Professor James Kenneth Mitchell This dissertation maintains that poverty makes the poor vulnerable but argues that spatial isolation and lack of participation in decision making intensify their present-day and future vulnerability. Concepts of entitlement (Sen, 1981), hazard vulnerability and coping strategies (Mitchell, Devine and Jagger, 1989; Blaikie, Cannon, Davis and Wisner, 1994; and, Hewitt, 1997) are used in the analysis. Archival research, participant observation and intensive interrogations of populations at risk are employed to delineate the flood experiences and coping strategies of the street children and residents of poor urban settlements and wealthy neighborhoods of Metro Manila at the household and community levels. Floods have severe impacts among the three urban groups. Yet the longitudinal burden of seasonal floods is less among the wealthy and their recovery chances are much more realistic. They have more resource reserves and they can command more influence over resource appropriations in local decision-making units. On the other hand, floods add to the daily burdens of impoverished households, urban poor women and street children and multiply their intensities in the future. Floods diminish their household resources. Their entitlements to residential units and lands, sewage system and drinking 

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water supply, health centers and medical services are lessened. Their non- representations in decision-making bodies deprive them of relief and emergency services and mitigation and recovery resources. Most particularly, the non-acknowledgment of 

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street children's legitimacy as city residents denies them of their constitutional rights to partake social resources. 

Collective actions among government institutions and community sectors may offer leads to a more impartial disaster prevention and recovery program of actions. Entitlements to disaster prevention and mitigation resources should not be based solely on property ownership. Gathering community members' participation at all levels of resource appropriation is sahent. Different members of flood-prone communities should have equal opportunities to participate in resource allocation during disaster and post- disaster periods. Research studies that will identify a socially equitable set of guidelines in allocation of resources are a necessity. Likewise, there is a need for a hazard model that will emphasize intervention strategies at all levels and incorporate gender and development perspectives in the analysis.