Issues and Concerns on Disasters: Working with Government

Every private individual or private sector group that engages in response during disaster cooperates and coordinates very closely with the public sector. Both the printed and the unwritten rule is always that the Philippines' National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (NDRRMC) is the chief agency on the ground during calamity.

Therefore, when operations are retarded and stunted, during sub-normal operating conditions, always the blame will go to the public sector.

The severe delay in responding to the devastated Leyte, Samar, Cebu and other areas left hundreds of thousands to millions hungry. As citizens themselves reported during the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda), people were walking the streets like zombies, hungry and totally disoriented, many days following the ravaging by the calamity and yet no aid was forthcoming.

The worst of the worst experience was becoming aware of how too many handicapped, or persons with disabilities (PWDs) were the foremost victims simply because in raging waters any PWD would certainly be at the receiving end of the power of the cyclone and its accompanying storm surge.

Few PWDs in the path of that disaster wrought by Haiyan (Yolanda) survived and some of those that did were even shunted by those giving out relief for not being able to go back "home" to their own respective barangay (village): an anachronism because in many areas hit by Yolanda, there were no more barangays still standing to speak of.

Indeed no aid was forthcoming for several days more and this led many people to form a very strange general attitude towards the national government's present leadership.

If the government assigns political color to what should and what must not be done, the situation becomes a terrible mess that will be difficult to untangle.

It is recalled for posterity that a relative of the President of the Philippines campaigned assiduously and painstakingly in the 2013 Philippine mid-term local elections for a Liberal Party candidate to win in Tacloban City. The candidate of Ms. Kristine Bernadette Cojuangco Aquino, was a certain Florencio Noel aka BEM. This candidate lost to opponent Alfred Romualdez of the rival political party, while it was already a certainty in the minds of the Liberal Party that their candidate was the victor.

As the media reported it in Tacloban City, candidate Florencio Noel was truly a shoo-in with Ms. Kristine Bernadette, sister of the President of the Philippines, supporting him:

Kris Aquino: ‘Game over’ for opposition in Tacloban mayoralty race

By Maila Ager
INQUIRER.net

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines –Florencio “Bem” Noel’s mayoralty bid got a boost from President Benigno Aquino III’s youngest sister and popular TV host, Kris, who declared that the mayoralty contest here was already “game over.”

“Kabilin-bilinan ni PNoy, gawin ko raw ang lahat para masigurado na ikaw na ang magiging mayor ng Tacloban City. Kaya hiningi ko ang kanyang vest dahil nakaabot po sa akin na yung kalaban ni mayor Bem, kung anu-ano raw pong paninira ang ginagawa sa akin at kay Senator Chiz,” Kris said over the weekend before a cheering crowd at the Leyte Sports Complex. (PNoy specifically requested me to do everything I can to make sure that you will become the mayor of Tacloban City. So I asked for his vest because I learned that Mayor Bem’s rival has been saying things against me and Senator Chiz)

Chiz is re-electionist Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero, who was also on stage along with another senatorial bet, former MTRCB chairperson Grace Poe and other local candidates. PNoy on the other hand is the moniker of the President.

“Of course I don’t like that and I’m sure you don’t also like that. That’s why I’m standing by this: Game over! Bem will be the next mayor of Tacloban,” she said in Filipino. Read more: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/402109/kris-aquino-game-over-for-opposition-in-tacloban-mayoralty-race#ixzz2nuhAR7wn

Since Alfred Romualdez must be a difficult name to swallow within the family living room and especially the dining table of the family of the President of the Philippines, there is little doubt that any form of help intended for that city Mayor would have to be given a little more thought before it reaches the ground in Tacloban City.

In the case of the useless war that erupted between the local executive branch under Mayor Alfred Romualdez and the national agency Department of Interior and Local Government under Senator now department secretary Manuel A. Roxas III the object of dispute was a written request by the local executive to the national agency narrating that the local government has fully given up and felt inadequate to undertake relief and recovery.

In that letter the local executive supposedly must ask the national agency to take over said relief and recovery operations in Tacloban City.

If both the local executive and the national agency chief were of the right frame of mind, there should have been no conflict. There was no need for the letter.

If the national agency should have insisted upon it, the local executive could simply have ignored the request or demand or behest. If all came to hell and high water, which it would not since super typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) had already made a dramatic exit, what the local executive should have done was to just keep working, working, working and ignore the national agency person.

As the situation came about, a large number of contingents from other countries arrived in Tacloban City, so there was no more need for Mr. National Agency.

On the other hand, however, aside from politicizing an otherwise non-partisan affair such as disaster response, if there is graft and corruption involved, the story altogether becomes a different one.

Not only are relief items and tools for affected areas' recovery are involved, but most of all the very precious financial aid monies that both the local private sector and the international community have extended to the victims of the disaster.

(It must be noted that a large volume of relief items showed up in the shelves of both small and super malls in the country while too many pitiful victims have not yet even heard of relief, much less received the aid. For the record, a huge number of reports were filed off the mainstream about relief goods like bread being dumped by government people into the sea and garbage pits in Cebu since they were never delivered on time and became rancid.)

Too many reports of this nature had to be ventilated through various outlets, mostly the social network websites since such information will have a 50-50% chance of being thrown away to the trash bin if the receiver was the government. Unless the specific, particular, receiver was a compassionate soul who would act very positively on the information.

While the full command and control of all these monies is in the hands of the national agencies, for the Mayor, Alfred Romualdez to relinquish full powers inherent in a local executive who is by and large, always the de facto chair of the Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council in his own jurisdiction, means that the giver (national agency) of the funds will also be the receiver (national agency - instead of local government) of the donated financial aid.

Situations such as that one, will certainly provide a wide gaping opportunity for unethical acts to be committed.

Some of the scenarios and situations that unfolded in the affected areas in the Visayas, Mindanao when Haiyan (Yolanda) struck viciously, are sadly cases where the people will not forget that at times, one has to be very level-headed and well-balanced when dealing with the government.

In disasters, one will never really know when using too much fire and emotion if one will prevail, when the other party is also insane with grief as a result of the calamity or perchance some other arcane reason.

The best solution is to have a cool disposition at all times and to always be equipped with great reserves of calm and tranquility. Disasters are un-normal occurrences that when one will succumb to weakness during such times, one will evidently be the loser.

As a testament to the willful and strong disposition of the local Mayor, when it was admonished over the social networks by the private sector to once and for all put a stop to the war with the national agency person, Mayor Alfred or his spouse, went on national television and announced their family's decision to focus on the task of completing the disaster response, relief, recovery operations - particularly since there were reported areas where the victims have not yet been reached.

That is a very good sign.