 The next panel looks at the U.S. government response to Haiyan, and we've got a great lineup of speakers. It's a real honor to have these three gentlemen with us today. I will introduce them right now, and then we'll start with Ambassador Marcele. Scott Marcele is the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs. He's well-known in this building in his many roles, working on Asia and Southeast Asia in particular. He was most recently the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Indonesia, and before that was Deputy Assistant Secretary responsible for Southeast Asia and concurrently the U.S. Ambassador for Ossian Affairs. Next to him is Greg Beck, who's Deputy Assistant Administrator for Asia at the U.S. Agency for International Development. Greg serves as the leader in management oversight for responsibilities for all aid programs in East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific. He is just back from Tacloban and the Philippines, as well as some other places, and will be able to speak very definitively about the U.S. response efforts there. And finally, Brigadier General Yaw Queen Malavet assumed his current position, which is Director of Joint Capabilities Assessment and Integration, Director at the DOD, and helps lead all operations at DOD focused on Southeast Asia at the Pentagon, and has been a great friend and a very proactive leader in this space. We're going to kick off with Ambassador Marseille and ask him to make brief remarks. We will then have Greg Beck speak and Brigadier General Malavet, and then we will open the floor to questions and answer. So Scott, could I ask you to kick it off? Thanks very much, Ernie, and thanks to CSIS for hosting this ambassador and friends, guests. I think General Malavet and Greg Beck will talk more about maybe the details of the assistance operation in response to the typhoon. So I thought what I might do is talk a little bit broader picture. First, obviously this was an enormous disaster when Secretary Kerry was there last month. He said it was like nothing he'd ever seen before. Absolutely huge overwhelming disaster. So I think a lot of people led by the Filipinos responded very well. I think it's fair to say that our response was actually quite good. We were there both on the military side and the civilian side immediately and began funneling assistance in almost immediately and continued that. I think we've provided now the figures. I have our $86 million worth of assistance, but I think the numbers only tell part of the story. It was really the speed and I think the effectiveness, particularly very good coordination, both within the US government, but more importantly, taking the lead from our Philippine counterparts who could tell us what was really needed and where. So a very good close working relationship. You know, I think obviously the most important thing in a humanitarian disaster is to respond as quickly as possible, try to save as many lives as you can and for the people, the survivors help them, A, get through the next, the coming weeks after the event and to begin to put their lives back together. So it's a huge humanitarian event to begin with and a huge humanitarian operation. But beyond that, I think there's a few other things we can learn from the response. And there's lessons learned in terms of the tactical operational part of it, but what I mean is more what does it mean in terms of United States, in the Philippines and in the region? And for me, there's just a couple of things I'd throw out. One is we certainly didn't do this response, carry out this response because of the rebalance. Before the rebalance, we would have done the same thing, I'm sure, but it does highlight, I think, within the rebalance, the very strong commitment the U.S. has to be in the region as a reliable partner and as a good partner that the Philippines and other countries in the region can count on the U.S. as a friend in the case of a disaster or whatever else may be needed. Two is, and I don't mean to sound like we're bragging on behalf of the U.S. government, but I think it showed that we have a pretty impressive capability, maybe not news to everybody, but still it did show combined military and civilian capability that I think was very significant and used to good effect. Third, it highlights very much what we've been saying since President Obama announced the rebalance. That the rebalance means we are gonna be there in the region, we're gonna be there diplomatically, we're gonna show up at the big multilateral events, we're gonna do a lot of engagement on a whole range of issues, we're gonna be there economically, we're gonna be there on a security perspective, et cetera, but it also means we're gonna be there when our friends need us. And one important thing to highlight and General Malavet will probably talk about this a little bit more is when we announced this, things like Marines and Darwin and so on, and we said part of the reason they're there is to be able to respond to humanitarian assistance. There was some snickering in the region, I was like, oh, come on, really. But the fact is you see in the response to this disaster the reason we were able to respond is because we had the assets. If we didn't have our Marines out there, our ships, our planes, et cetera, with the best efforts of our colleagues at USAID and others, it would have been very, very difficult. So being present, I think, is hugely important in there. It also, I think, highlighted the very real benefits of our long-term military relationship with the Philippines. There's never easy to respond to a disaster, but it's much easier when the militaries know each other and are used to working with each other. Again, not only military, civilian elements too, and I think OFTA also has had a long-term relationship with its Philippine counterparts, so building those relationships actually are very important and I think paid off. And the last point I'd make on this is that it also highlighted once again the very important and positive role of corporate America. A lot of American corporations also joined in, as well as a lot of American individuals, including from the diaspora community, but particularly the U.S. corporations have offered a lot of assistance, and continue to offer assistance, including in helping people restart their businesses, their livelihoods, because that's obviously critical. Looking forward, I think there's been a lot of good work done to date by Filipinos, by Americans, and by others. Obviously a huge amount of work to do. Long-term reconstruction, the Philippine government and local authorities and Philippine businesses will take the lead. The U.S. will certainly want to continue to contribute, but it also highlights the importance of continuing to build the trade and investment relationship, because really over time it's going to be the investment, the trade, the business opportunities that bring the economy in the Tacloban and the affected region back to life. So let me stop there, Arnie. Thanks very much. Greg. Great. Thank you, Arnie. And thank you for pulling together this conference today. It's great to be here with my esteemed colleagues and yourself, Ambassador and all our guests today. I'm always worried that after the first month or two, on a large emergency, such as the typhoon high-on, that the attention fades, because there are so many other pressing issues and other disasters around the world. So this is really important to come together and to remain focused on our efforts going forward. So thank you. Yeah, I was in, as Scott mentioned, I was in Tacloban a few weeks ago, and I was able to see the immediate impacts of a long-term partnership with the government of the Philippines. I was also able to see the impact of our initial investments over the last five years in building the resilience, building systems that were helping us to mitigate the effects of these large natural disasters. I also was able to see how we've been working very strongly with diaspora groups, with NGOs, with local groups, and also with private sector, to build those long-term relationships that were preceding the response, but that we were able to then put into action on the first day. And so USAID had been tracking the typhoon and saw that it was becoming incredibly powerful about a week before it hit land. So we prepositioned a number of staff who are normally based in our regional office in Bangkok, brought them down to Manila. Within the first day, they were there in Tacloban and were immediately working with our colleagues on DOD. And I really need to give a shout out to that strong interagency coordination, but especially to DOD, without that air bridge, we would not have been able to deliver effectively all the supplies that we brought in from our bases in Manila, or sorry, from Dubai and from Miami. Over 2,000 metric tons of critical relief supplies were brought out to the secondary and tertiary distribution sites because of the air bridge, because of the C-130s, because of the Ospreys, because of the choppers and the operational support that Defense gave to the government of the Philippines. It was incredibly critical. I've been working in Asia for over a decade and I think I've worked most of the natural disasters that have happened. And I have to say this really was a textbook response because we had been working for a number of years and building out that network and building out those partnerships so that we were building capacity to immediately respond no matter the size of the scope of the emergency. So this was really a terrific response. As I think Scott mentioned, over $86 million was contributed by the US government in the emergency response. Initially, we brought in and distributed plastic sheeting, other non-food items, hygiene kits, food aid, and also began immediately working on transitional shelter. And also I think it's important to highlight that within the first couple of weeks, American private sector alone came together and contributed to its NGO partners over $50 million, which was incredibly important. In addition, I think we need to shout out to the other donors. And I think as of December 31st, $583 million have been contributed from around the world towards this effort. And I believe that's almost 80% of the UN appeal for the emergency response. And so again, I think it shows the importance of the Philippines in the region and to all of us as critical partners. And so I think that needs to be congratulated to all those partnerships. We are now beginning our pivot to the early recovery stage. And we will continue to focus on some critical areas. Transitional shelter, livelihoods, health, cash for work, microfinance, temporary schools, and rebuilding of rural health units will be very important focus for us over the next three to 12 months. And as I think many of you are aware, when Secretary Kerry was there, I think it was on the 18th of December, announced a terrific partnership with Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble and with USAID that will be rebuilding 2000 sorry sorry's. For those of you who are not aware of sorry sorry's, those are the small stores that are connected to oftentimes people's homes. And they have the small sachets of cleaning liquids or just coffee or oils and just really important supplies for people who are living on it, you know, less than a dollar a day. But it also creates income and livelihoods for a number of families. And so we'll be getting those up and running very, very quickly. It is a heavy lift going forward. We have some critical areas, especially in shelter, I think as we saw in the Washington Post article over the weekend. We'll be working with Leyte in developing a green plan so that we're building back not only better, but building back safer, building back healthier. And I think again it needs to be recognized that the government of the Philippines has been building their capacity and their ability to respond quickly and effectively over the last decade. We'll continue to work very closely with the government to further strengthen that capacity, recognizing that this is not the last of the emergencies that we're going to be seeing. In fact, when I was in Tacloban, I then went over to Baha'uil where I think many people forgot that there was a devastating earthquake just nine days before. I think it was the typhoon hit that was equally devastating to infrastructure and to people's lives and to livelihoods. So I would also ask us not to forget the people of Baha'uil because there were a tremendous amount of people that were affected by that and we have a lot of work to be done there too. So with that, thanks, Ernie. Thank you, Greg. General. Ernie, thank you again. And in addition to the comments that were made by my fellow panel members, I just want to share, kind of stepping back a little bit, the broader perspective. And Mr. Ambassador, it's good to see you. Beyond my current position as the principal director for South and Southeast Asia in OSD policy, my relationship with the Republic of the Philippines runs deep well over 25 years, both professionally and personally. As a young captain in 1990, 1991, I was involved with the earthquake and mudslide relief in northern Luzon. I was married in the Philippines in May of 1991 and left shortly thereafter and my wife Rose was evacuated from the Philippines when Mount Pinatubo blew up in 1991. So for us, the Malavet family, and certainly for both nations, I think it reflects the deep and abiding strength of our alliance along military lines as well as the strength of our people-to-people ties. And I think that's reflected, and I can't thank you enough, Ernie, for bringing this type of form to light because some of that below the surface is what we need to highlight, the success of this operation and what it speaks to with regard to our past relationships and our military strength, but also for what we can do in the future, both with the United States of America and the Philippines, but perhaps greater contributions to this type of operation in the region. So it shows a lot of strength. I think, quite frankly, for the military, working side by side and with USAID and the country team, a great deal of thanks and respect to the interagency process is due, quite frankly. For the Secretary of Defense, and speaking and echoing what Ambassador Marciel said, for the Rebalance, there are three to four areas that we focus in on, and that is our Rebalance to the Asia Pacific is based on principles of international norms of behavior. There is a reflection that presence matters. Certainly our alliances and our partnerships are growing stronger, in particular over the last four to five years, and there is also the theme of power projection, but power projection in military terms really means that the ability to bring the types of capabilities very quickly with regard to HADR. So for the US response to this tragedy, we bring wholesale capabilities with aircraft lift, medical capabilities, ships, aircraft, and the ability to command and control very efficiently, very effectively. Now I think it's fair to recognize that we can't do that without the spirit and the cooperation of the capabilities that are resident in country. And I'd like to acknowledge and praise the efforts of the armed forces of the Philippines because they were on the front lines every day during this operation, and they have unique capabilities that I think are probably understated with this particular story. And as we go forward and we break out lessons learned, I think you will see a great deal of courage and capability and capacity that is currently resident in the armed forces of the Philippines, and I can tell you with our enhanced rotational presence of forces and the acceptance of those capabilities in the Philippines, the armed forces of the Philippines will grow even stronger over time. It is true that bringing KC-130 side by side with the Philippine KC-130s, bringing MV-22s, command and control, radar systems, and all of that consistent with our enhanced rotational presence to save lives, recognizing that speed is life and speed, maneuverability, the ability to communicate on time on target to save lives is an absolutely essential component, one component of a larger whole of government or whole of governments approach to make sure that we do and execute these types of missions with the effectiveness and the efficiency that is required to save lives. So again, thank you very much. I can get into more detail with regard to what we actually provided, some cutting edge technologies, and some of the things that we hope to bring forward with our relationship with the Philippines. Again, thank you, Arnie. Okay, thank you very much. Thank all three of you for your excellent presentations. This audience we've seen in the early panel is ready to dig in, so I am going to open the floor and invite questions right away, so right here. Hi, my name is Sonny Boussin with the PEFC. A question for all of you, but I only get to ask one. So, Mr. Beck. I noticed that a lot of the efforts towards rebuilding the Philippines are dedicated towards shelter and resettlement. How much of those efforts are gonna go towards convincing some of the refugees that they can't go back to where they were living because it's just gonna create more problems in the next typhoon. And, but I know that a lot of these people have nowhere else to go, but it doesn't make sense to resettle them in the same place where there's gonna be another typhoon. So what are the efforts that USAID is doing to make this happen? Thank you. Thank you, that's a terrific question. And I did see that when I was walking around through the streets of Tacloban. There are obviously a number of low-lying areas that we would not want people to return to. These are difficult times. It's not chaotic anymore as it was, but nonetheless, there is the need to do long-term planning while also doing the short-term, addressing the short-term needs. So what we're looking at, again, as part of that longer-term plan is to work with the government in Leyte. First, we thought it would be Tacloban, but we obviously realized it needs to be larger because there are a number of people who are going to need to move outside probably of Tacloban. So we need to have a larger lens on that. And we'll begin working with the government to develop that green plan so that it is much more of a forward-thinking and resilient development plan in place. In the meantime, we're looking at the transitional shelters that are no longer in the low-lying areas. We don't have yet the full capacity or resources to service all the needs of the people who have been displaced by the typhoon. But we're also working with other donors, working with the government to come together to address those transition on the temporary shelter needs. Again, working closely with the government to ensure that they don't go back to those low-lying areas. There will be some people who want to go back, especially the Fisher folks who lived on the water before. That's where their immediate livelihoods access is going to be. We need to work with them individually. We need to work with them as a community. And that's what we focus in on the months to come. Lady, right here. Good morning, Mr. Ambassador. Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Rosemary Seguero. I'm the president of Hope for Tomorrow. We are an unprofit organization, Pestia, in the district. And we are also a profit organization, Pestia also in the district. I come from Africa. We are working on response on Africa with my organization. Looking at your presentation from the ambassador and you all, we are people who are already in the shelter. The ambassador talked about importing materials maybe from another country to come and resettle the people who are in the shelter. I consider so much money people will give and continue to give, including USID. Why can't you look at the main and major problem of resettlement? We are fabricated, if the Philippines are importing the fabricated material for construction or for shelter, why can't you just take one sum sum of money and bring in fabricated, if fabricated materials, build the shelters, which are not actually shelters. This would be a long-term houses and resettle in people instead of being in the shelter. And here we are looking for, and then people would be looking for other things to support, like humanitarian, like food and other things because people need to live a better life and that's where the lively starts. Look into shelter first and then the other things can come in as we come in as nonprofit organization to support the women and the children and healthcare and education. So I think all the money should first go into the shelter first before we come into dread and other things because those people need help. They need to resettle before they think of going to buy something to eat away. Will they cook the things and how will they cook? You know, it's very sad for them. So let's look at something very important. How do we get the refurbricated buildings and put up the settlement for these people first instead of just assuming they're in the shelter and they're suffering there? Then we come to healthcare, education and then business because the same people are the ones who will do business. So look into the main thing which is resettlement first. Thank you. Thank you for your question. Sure. I agree. You know, from my experience, when people are immediately recovering from a disaster, they're looking for security, they're looking for food and water and they're looking for shelter. The security is there. The food and water is now markets are back up and running. We helped to restore the Tacloban water system within eight days and that brought water back to 200,000 people. Shelter now is really the next priority. I think what we're trying to do is to be sensitive and smart in that rebuilding and those transitional shelters so that they are weather resistant and are able to survive the next storm that comes because we also know that these transitional shelters oftentimes become permanent shelters. So what we try to do is to build the transitional shelter as sort of core that families can then as they generate livelihoods are able to then build on additional rooms to that. But we're trying to again make it context specific so that using locally available resources. There are so many millions of people affected and then displaced and have lost their houses to actually bring in materials from outside. I don't think it's probably the most effective use of our resources because there are a number of locally available resources that I think would be also relevant and applicable for the Philippines. But I agree with you, it is a major focus and it's one that we are looking at. I want to interject a question here directed really at Scott and General Malavet, which is in the talking points for entering the East Asia Summit we said and particularly this ASEAN based security architecture, we said that these ASEAN based, the ASEAN Defense Ministers Forum would be key to humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. Have you seen any implications or has that architecture been able to be part of the response to this situation and what do you hope for the future? And I guess I'd ask both of you to respond. Well, General may have more thoughts on it. I guess what I would say is that ASEAN as a whole, we saw I think a number of ASEAN countries respond quite generously in this respect. I think it does reflect a growing sense of ASEAN community and as well as capacity. I think though what we find, I'm not an expert on disasters, but I think even as a layman you can see, the disasters are so overwhelming. They wipe out the infrastructure and very few governments or organizations have a logistical ability to respond quickly. And so even with the political will to try to be helpful, it's just really difficult. And I have to say, I mean the US military has the greatest logistical organization in the world, as it's often said, and that capacity is almost unique. So I think we're seeing movement, more political will, more desire to help, but realistically it's gonna take some time for I think the ASEANs to have that logistical capacity to build up. Thank you. I'd like to add again, just some thoughts on our alliance with the Republic of the Philippines and last year's bilateral security dialogue highlighted and referenced HADR as a critical mission set, an area of cooperation. And in the writings and the forums associated with that event, we also recognize the Republic of the Philippines has unique capabilities that are critical to the region. And we recognize too that the Republic of the Philippines has also offered assistance within ASEAN for the disasters in the region. And I think that's fair to highlight. ASEAN and the ADMM+, the ASEAN Defense Minister's Ministerial Plus Organization also has expert working groups for the practical cooperation of regional entities. And one of those is HADR. And what we're seeing is different nations in the region bring different capabilities of various forms and sizes, all of which are good. The critical piece is how we bring them together in time and space. And a big component of that is the communication, the command, the control. And then below that is our ability to have the type of interoperability with radio systems and like-minded standard operation procedures, as well as the types of forces that we bring to bear. So I think this event speaks to many positive lessons learned. And I need to highlight too, the Center of Excellence for Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance. Because as we collect that up through PAYCOM and OSD policy, those lessons learned, all of the good that we saw in this particular event will be shared throughout the region, through ASEAN and through those regional forums for the greater good. And I think that's a positive sign that we'll see in the coming years. So thank you, sir. Ambassador, I think you have a question. I had a chance to thank the U.S. government through Ambassador Scott Martial, U.S. AID through Greg Beck, and U.S. military through General Malibut for the very comprehensive and immediate response and generous assistance that was extended to the Philippine government and to the Taipun Haiyan victims. So thank you again to all three of you, to your organizations. Thank you. Gentlemen, back here. Good morning. Good morning. I would like to address my question to Mr. Beck. My name is Pavlito Alarcon and I'm a video organization here in Washington, Newsy. We call our organization, Feed the Hungry, Inc. I was in Ormuk late last November 28th. We distributed relief mission in a remote area in Ormuk, while generally the relief is on those populous, more known area like Tacloban, where I went, they haven't received anything. And I noticed that you said that you are partnering with NGOs. So I was wondering how we can partner with you so that we can reach those remote areas where we specialize because of our limited budget. Thank you and thank you for your good work. I really appreciate it. We will be shortly announcing an APS for I believe it's around a million dollars or so. You say what an APS is. Sorry, it's a call for proposals. Sorry, it sounded like a bureaucrat. A call for proposals that will be focused on diaspora groups who are currently engaged, who have capacity on the ground, that we would like to be able to accelerate your work. We recognize, again, trying to get out to the very rural areas is always a challenge. And so I think certainly the diaspora groups and our local organizations have that network and they have the boots on the ground and those are the groups that we wanna be assisting. So stay tuned shortly. That announcement will hit the street and then we'll be able to get those resources out the door very quickly. Hi, my name is Bob Ottenhoff. I'm with the Center for Disaster Philanthropy. My question is for Greg Beck. We've been hearing in your prepare remarks and with the Ambassador's remarks, talks about building resilient communities. You mentioned that you have been working on this for several years. Can you tell us more about what are the characteristics of a resilient community that you're trying to build? And how far did you get before high-end and what needs to be done going forward? Thank you. I think the characteristics are one, they're multifaceted, obviously, and we really began engaging with the Philippines on this area of work, I think it was about five years ago or so, recognizing that again with global climate change, that we're gonna see an increase of natural disasters in the Philippines and also working generally throughout Asia on this area. So it's really, it's working with individuals, it's working with families, it's working with communities and then within those communities trying to find those structures that are gonna be best able to connect with the people in anticipating and building strong infrastructure, both in schools and in houses, but also building resilient livelihoods, those that are capable of rebounding after a natural disaster. In most cases, that's going to be in agriculture and in fisheries in areas that we're working in the Pacific and in Asia. So we'll be working on those systems, also working very closely with national governments and local governments so that they're able to, again, forecast, they're then able to do early warning and response prior to the disaster coming if it's forecasted and then being able to quickly, to be able to mobilize its networks that are not only in the urban areas, but are also in the very remote areas. So I think it's very multifaceted. We still have a lot of work to do, but I think one of the indications of success in Leyte and especially in Tacloban, the government was able to move 800,000 people and that was impressive. While obviously there were millions that were impacted by it, without that movement of people, I think we would have seen a much higher number of deaths as a result of high on. So that's one indication, I think, of that success, but obviously we need to continue to strengthen those response mechanisms. Okay, let me go to the back here. Mitzi, I'll get to you. Iri Nakimushkina, Global Health International Advisors. Typhoon Haiyan affected the poorest areas of the country. How realistic is with rebuilding efforts to help some people to move out from poverty and what kind of programs could be done in this context? Thank you. Well, what we've been able to do is, for the last couple of years, we've worked very closely with the government of Philippines to begin implementing the partnership for growth and the partnership for growth. We have a number of programs on the ground and a lot of that is focused on developing inclusive economic growth in the country and we've been able to sort of rejigger current programs in the area of health and also in livelihoods. So we're able to immediately deliver those resources, recognizing that people are in the depths of poverty and now have been even knocked back even further. And so I think by, again, having that long-term partnership with the Philippines and then having the resources on the ground with the partnership for growth, we're also looking at secondary urban centers as drivers of growth and so we have our city's initiative. Recently, I was in Manila and we were working with Batangas and we rolled out a program there on our city's initiative, recognizing that it's not just Manila that's gonna be driving the economic growth, but we do need to be looking at those secondary centers and Tacloban could be that. So again, we'll be deploying those resources that we've been able to galvanize through the partnership for growth to be focusing on the issues that you've raised. Mitzi? Oh, sorry. Hi, I'm Mitzi Picard of PAFC, Philippine American Foundation for Charities. I have a question for you, Ambassador Marcelle. Nice to see you again. Anyways, you mentioned the 86 million additional aid to the Philippines and you talked about livelihood projects, hygiene kits, et cetera. How much of that is a portion towards human trafficking as we had a previous question earlier? And also we keep talking about Tacloban, but other areas were affected severely as well like Samar and Cebu, so perhaps one of the other panelists could also address this question about the other areas. Thank you. Thanks, Mitzi. Good to see you too. I'd say the trafficking in persons problem is a problem we've been working with the Philippine authorities on for some time. I mean, it's not specific to this disaster, but one of the things, and Greg knows more about this than I do, but one of the things that we've learned over time is that when there are disasters, unfortunately, there are predators who take advantage of that to try to engage in trafficking or other crimes. And so I think one of the things USAID did early on, very early on, was send out really an expert to deal with local authorities, an expert on trafficking, to deal with alloc for signs. And we've been working very closely with the Philippine government, which also focused, has been very aware of this risk, also very focused on it. So I don't know if there's a dollar figure associated with it so much, but certainly a very keen awareness of the risks and efforts too to try to do everything we could working with Philippine authorities to address that. And you make a good point about it's not just Tacloban. Sometimes I think I'm guilty, maybe we're guilty of referring to Tacloban just because people know the name. It doesn't mean that our work is only in Tacloban. It's sort of, if you will, symbolizes the broader area, but Greg might wanna add more. Sure. Thanks, Scott. Yeah, so OFDA distributed $35 million in grants to our NGO colleagues. Built into each one of those grants is a focus on protection. And so we recognize in these types of circumstances is a huge risk. Families are incredibly vulnerable to many shocks, but certainly to the risk of trafficking. So that is always a central focus of any of our emergency relief efforts. We also, as Scott was recognizing, we have a strong systems built up in the Philippines. The Philippines, the government has been working on trafficking issues for a long time. Many places where we go into and respond to emergencies, we don't have that capacity. So I think that was an advantage for us that we were able to build on and strengthen a foundation that was already there and addressing trafficking issues. On the issue of not just Tacloban, we are looking at SMR, you know, MCC has tremendous resources and investments in SMR. They've built the road around SMR. Those are areas we might be able to look at. And MCC is the... Sorry, Millennium Challenge Corporation, another acronym. Sorry, but we're looking at how we might be able to utilize that resource of the road as possible resettlement sites or as possible future sites for people to move to as the master plan begins building out. Again, recognizing that there are so many low-lying areas around Leyte, maybe that's not the best permanent place that we need to be looking at other locations around the Philippines. So again, working very closely with the government, SMR might be that possibility. I just want to interject a question. You know, one of the things that we're thinking about is President Obama's trip to Asia in April. And I wondered if you could, you have a sense whether he would go to the Philippines and when he's there, would he focus on this issue? These, you know, the interagency response, the partnership with the Philippines, the mil-to-mil relationship, is that a possibility? Yeah, well, National Security Advisor Susan Rice in her speech at Georgetown four, six weeks ago, whenever it was announced that the President would return to Asia in April in part to, you know, because he wasn't able to visit. They haven't announced the particular destinations yet and I don't think any of the three of us want to be the ones to make such an announcement on behalf, much as the White House would appreciate it. But I guess what I would say, you know, were the President to go to the Philippines, I think there'd be a wide range of things to talk about. I was gonna say issues, but it's more than issues. There's a lot of celebrating to do. Celebrating in terms of this long relationship that is unique in many ways and incredible people-to-people relationships. The general mentioned his personal one, I have a personal one, you know, I mean, it's really a deep part of the relationship is this connection as well as, you know, how we can work together on the economy, promoting business. I mean, Philippines is growing at extremely rapid rates now. It's increasingly attractive for U.S. companies, the security relationship, how we can work together in the region. So I think it'll be a really, you know, would be, let me rephrase that, it would be a very broad-based discussion. I'm sure the issue of reconstruction in the disaster area would come up as well. I just wanted to add on a question that was delivered earlier, and I think we would all recognize that out of tragedy comes strength and opportunity. And again, I have to praise the armed forces of the Philippines because working side by side, by, with, and through United States forces, we're beginning to discern lessons learned but assessing the types of needs and requirements down at the local level. I wanna highlight a few things. We recognized during this tragedy that access, roads, bridges, airfields, ports are very, very important, not only to the economy and trade down at the local level, but are really part of a national security element. So side by side with the armed forces of the Philippines, we're looking at ways through our enhanced rotational presence of forces and cooperative training exercises to bring engineers together, to look at areas of opportunity to build out airfields and our ports and our roads and our bridges and those sorts of things together. And I think that's an important element. And two other pieces that I think will be highlighted over time is that the United States military was able to bring in some of the new technologies that we've developed over the past 10 to 12 years. Those associated with expeditionary energy that not only help our US forces, but also have a local element and value to it as well. And then we've recognized that over the last 10 years we have also developed new medical technologies and capabilities, smaller packages of assistance. All of those things have an enduring effect, not only for our relationship with the Philippines, but have real value for the types of things that the US military desires to offer to the region. And I think, again, going back to the common themes, all of that helps to increase trade, economics, and saves lives in the near term, but also for the future. So thank you again, Harry. Gentleman here. Hi, good morning. David Van Lewen, Millennium Challenge Corporation. General, I was wondering if you could comment on the status or the ongoings of the New People Army pre-Taifun Haiyan and also the status or the ongoings of the New People's Army post-Hian, especially with the influx of aid assets and the international presence. Thank you. As you know, we have our JASODE of P elements working side by side with the Republic of the Philippines. And unfortunately, I don't have the information that you seek to offer that for you here today. But again, working with the Republic of the Philippines and the Armed Forces, that is something that we're working very closely with and security is an important element of our relationship. And certainly it's important before and after any tragedy like we saw in Tacloban and other areas. So it's a watch item. Thank you. Eric Weiner, Abandian Analytics, an answer is to focus on the Asia Pacific. Thanks for being here today. All of you have highlighted a lot of the positive lessons learned. I wondered if you could touch upon any possible negative lessons learned. Were there any? Thank you. I think there's always positive lessons learned and also things to watch out for. I would say a good example is I think the Philippine government and local authorities did a very good job ahead of the typhoon of evacuating folks into places that they thought would be typhoon resistant. And few of us, none of us maybe, predicted the surge from the ocean which ended up causing a huge amount of the damage and probably a lot of the deaths. I'm not saying that to be critical. It's very difficult to predict these things. But again, it highlights that just how important it is to understand that these things are unpredictable and therefore not to assume that a shelter necessarily is going to work. Again, very hard in practice to say what else you might have done. But that was I think a, not necessarily a mistake, but sort of next time I think people would sort of ask themselves, what would we do if there's a surge? That's one. I would just, it's a good question. I would just, we normally have an after action review after the first six months. And I expect that we'll find where things did work and where things could be better. So I hate to sort of jump the gun and project what that is. Because I'm really not exactly sure what those would look like. But we do have a system built in so that we're able to step back and reflect and see how we can do better the next time. I think we're still doing the assessments. But I would characterize, we've learned a lot about the importance of, the importance of early warning. The importance of communicating what is about to occur down to the local level. The importance of resilient communications. The importance of very, very strong and established command and control centers. The importance of the whole of government approach, whole of government's approach. The synergy and synchronization of a lot of capabilities and a lot of goodwill combined with the spirit of the people has compounded positive effects over time. And then as an event like this occurs, it's very important with visual capability to discern what has actually occurred on the ground and to get that information up to the command and control centers so that you can deliver what is needed at the right time, at the right place for the right effects to save lives. So really the importance of those factors, I think there are a lot of positive lessons Lawrence coming out of that, so thank you. I'd like to thank the panel. I know there's a lot more questions here. The good news is that we're gonna take a quick break and that we have another panel coming up. So you'll have, if you weren't called on here, hopefully you'll have another chance to get a question in. That panel is gonna look at the private sector and NGO response to the Typhoon. But please join me in thanking our guest from the US. Thank you. Thank you.