CEBU CITY — “When TV crews race cargo ships with airplanes and helicopters, the cameras always win.” John Crowley of Harvard’s Humanitarian Initiative wrote after supertyphoon “Yolanda/Haiyan ” battered the Visayas.
Planes can fly 24 to 48 hours after a storm clears. But massive aid deliveries come only by ship. That takes days.. Repair of damaged ports and roads often take weeks.
We saw that in Bohol, ruptured by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake October 15. And in 1991, Typhoon “Uring” tore at Ormoc. Over 8,000 died, as today’s memorial recalls. In 2011, “Sendong/Washi” ripped through Cagayan de Oro and Iligan in 2011, inflicting 1,453 deaths. A year later, “Pablo/Bopha flattened much of Davao Oriental and Compostela.
Yolanda’s winds, however, gusted at 315 kilometers per hour, smashing thru Storm Category Five ceiling.. Storm surges left corpses and traumatized survivors.
“Journalists will report the gap between supply and demand… faces of people in need. But when they focus on looting and sow aid they miss the point,” Crowley added. “Information is aid… Scaremongering undermines relief effort…”
“The Philippines is captive to its geography”, wrote Jennifer Keister, at Cato Institute in Washington The country sprawls over 7,132 islands — at low tide. Like many developing countries, it is “captive to political dysfunction”. Poverty, corruption, poll irregularities and pervasive political patronage gut what is, on surface, democratic government.
The “blame game” is intensifying Sun Star’s opinion editor Bong Wenceslao noted. ..Critics of President Aquino scour reports on government’s response to Yolanda and storm surge-hit Tacloban City. “They feast on every sign of incompetence they’ve long accused him of possessing.”
“All rules of decency are jettisoned. And profanities are thrown at will (“asshole,” “gago”). Admittedly, government response has been inadequate. So there are materials for critics to lambast their pet peeve.” But to be PNoy-centric is to distort reality. It smudges the complexity of the events….”
“As so often happens, the best human stories are those that didn’t make the 6 o’clock news,” former UP mass communication graduate Angioline Loredo emailed from New York, after checking on her parents in Iloilo. Media “makes it appear the whole country is exploding. One has to remind one’s self of the silent triumph of the human spirit amidst unspeakable horror. Hit is the worst and best time to practice journalism.”
There are more storms ahead. “ “We are now entering a period of consequences…in the global climate crisis.” noted Nobel Laureate Al Gore. But the impact isn’t spread equally The burden is heaviest for countries close to the equator and which lack the “economic, institutional, scientific, and technical capacity to cope and adapt,” World Bank notes.
The Philippines doubled its “calamity fund” since 2009. But this year, the fund is near empty, sapped by serial disasters. What isn’t funded by international aid must come from siphoning from other programs.
UN says Philippine risk-reduction laws “among the best in the world – at least on paper.”, Washington Post notes.. They stipulate that seven out of every ten pesos in disaster spending go to long-term measures.
The task for lowering disaster risk falls on local governments. “Some operate like little fiefdoms”. Think Ampatuans or Chavit Singson. “Decisions are based on electoral considerations rather than on technical assessments.”
An embedded informal system of patronage and strongman politics hobbled response to Yolanda Haiyan, notes Jennifer Keisgter, who did three years research here. “Haiyan highlights the degree to which these pathologies generate under-preparedness for disasters and confound relief efforts.
“The system is prone to under-provision of public goods and services broadly, but particularly ill-suited to disaster preparedness” That’s academic jargon for g-r-a-f-t. Ask Bong, Juan Ponce, Jinggoy and Bongbong : How many typhoon victims could have been helped from your squandered pork barrel?…
Ilocos Norte governor Imee, Marcos stashed a secret account in the Virgin Islands, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists reported So did the mint-new Senator J. Estrada They didn’t declare that in their statements of assets and liabilities. So, did they dip into that to help typhoon victims? Next question please.
Sleaze erodes “public trust to such levels that residents may not obey exhortations to evacuate” , ( Others ) may not believe government will protect their property from looters or squatters if they did, Keisgter adds . “Trust in government is essential. “
Strongman politics shapes the distribution of disaster aid. “Disaster response ( here) is often plagued by allegations that local authorities hoard aid supplies. ( They ) distribute it only to political supporters or family members”.
Aid distribution also has been accused of falling prey to profiteering middlemen. “Conspiracy theories are an understandable refuge for frustrated populations whose predicament result from many factors. But the persistence of such accusations…, suggests they may contain an element of truth.”
“Aid agencies are required to work through local politicians”. Many may work faithfully their constituents, Keisgter adds.. But in many instances, “aid providers find themselves confronting a devil-or-deep-blue-sea quandary”: choose “between supporting political pathologies they find unappealing ( or ) fail to help victims.”
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