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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Getting busted for disaster response

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It’s like this. Anti-administration critics are having a field day busting President Duterte for the government’s response to the victims of Typhoon “Ompong.” One mainstream paper quoting a farmer who was devastated as the typhoon made landfall in his hometown of Baggao in Cagayan bannered: “Where’s the government?” after the man complained he had not seen any relief good or a local official in his barangay since after the 250-kilometer-per-hour howler passed by. Some critics quoting another source from the town of Lallo blasted government efforts as selective and “too little, too late.” Apparently, the source was talking about relief operations not getting fast enough to his barangay as workers walked to his place. Roads were near impassable with all kinds of debris and landslides.

But wait. While these two sources, if true, were being quoted, President Duterte was in the provincial capital, Tuguegarao City, together with members of his Cabinet barking out orders on priority tasks to be undertaken. A day or two earlier, Cagayan Gov. Manny Mamba was in touch with Secretaries Silvestre Bello and Arthur Tugade who are both from Cagayan Valley. They were putting together all the available funds and resources for the backbreaking task of relief and rescue after the typhoon passes. They also were giving instructions to all concerned to get people evacuated to safer places and wait out the storm from there. These were done not only in Cagayan and Isabela, the two most-hit provinces, but in the other provinces in the typhoon’s way.

Three days after Ompong brought damage in Northern Luzon, the disaster response seems to be working like clock work. As of this writing, government and private relief and rehabilitation efforts are continuously being mobilized to ensure a modicum of normalcy in the areas affected by Ompong across Northern Luzon over the weekend.

Rescue teams are busy retrieving bodies from an abandoned mining tunnel in Itogon, Benguet where some 50 small-scale miners defied orders to move out of their bunkers and decided to wait out the storm from underground. They did not see the light of day after heavy downpour inundated the area and a landslide crashed the tunnel to its foundations. While we are saddened by the extent of casualties, both of lives and properties, it has not distracted us from doing what needs to be done in disasters such as this. Government is moving in as organized a manner as can be with all the resources and resolve it can muster at this point.

Compare this with government’s response to the devastation caused by Super Typhoon “Yolanda” during the previous administration. True, then Secretaries Mar Roxas and Volts Gazmin were in Tacloban City, the regional center to discuss with all government functionaries the needed response plan to cope with the incoming storm. After satisfying themselves that everything had been taken care of, they hied away to their hotels to wait out the howler. They were roused from their slumber and almost did not make it to safer grounds themselves. The whole city and most parts of Yolanda’s path were mowed down by super strong winds and in many areas got submerged, in a manner of speaking, in waves upon waves of surging water that left thousands dead. The two very powerful officials of the administration had to scout around for a safe place to compose themselves and reconnect with the outside world. There was one problem though. The lines were cut off and they forgot to have their satellite phones in place. It took them hours to steady themselves and when they did they found a city totally washed out, in a sense, with bodies strewn all over the place. It took a number of more days before the real relief and rescue operations could take hold. In fact, the first responders aside from the surviving employees of local and regional government units were private humanitarian organizations one of which, a Taiwan based organization, was credited with clearing the debris the day after Yolanda passed by.

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And what was the immediate government effort even as relief was on the way? The government started off with finger pointing, their favorite blame game with that famous repartee “Remember you are a Romualdez and the President is an Aquino?” This went viral and remains one of the oft-quoted statements every time people ask whatever happened to the billions poured into the Yolanda areas not only from the national budget and local relief and rescue groups but internationally. Tales of woe and disappointment if not anger over the government’s response reverberate up to this day. In fact, the COA and international audit groups have yet to account for all the billions of monies and resources poured into the areas on Yolanda’s path. Even up to now the promised housing and infrastructure works already funded out of taxpayer money have yet to be completed.

And President Duterte and his administration is being busted for their disaster response? Come on!

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