It has been five years since Typhoon “Yolanda” swept Eastern Visayas with a thumping nightmare from which disaster officials and political leaders were traumatized, cut to the quick with a lesson beyond full resolution.
Officials, looking back, admit Yolanda, has taught them, in the lens of Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo, “a hard lesson in public service, particularly on the need to respond to our people’s plight with more compassion and urgency.”
It matters not if an area devastated is in the political map of incumbent leaders.
Essential is that the political leaders and disaster officials have a template to address similar situations in years ahead, particularly since the Philippines, its location near the equator, is prone to tropical cyclones.
The Yolanda experience, with its 314-kilometers-per-hour winds—the strongest to make landfall in recorded history up to then—has shown how vital it is to know disasters and their effects.
We agree with observers that potential victims, those hacking out a living in disaster zones, rescue teams and those directly and indirectly involved must be equipped with the basic knowledge to respond with the speed of light when disasters jab a community.
It is good that government officials commend Filipinos’ exemplary resilience, but they must gear up on victims’ resettlement needs while remembering the selflessness of volunteers and organizations that participated in the recovery and rehabilitation efforts.
At least 10,000 have been estimated to have died, 22,000 missing with damage estimated at P571.1 billion, economic growth hampered by about 0.9 percent in 2013, and another 0.3 percent in 2014. Beyond all this, Yolanda has shown the need for coordination at all levels, aid transparency, and accountability, systems, and protocols for donations and aid, the conduct of post-disaster needs assessment, as well as recovery planning, implementation, monitoring, and communications.