Yolanda response is expected

It was par for the course. If our government officials seemed shellshocked in the aftermath of Yolanda, that’s to be expected. Yolanda was no ordinary typhoon. It is probably not possible to prepare for all the consequences of such a historically record breaking weather disturbance.

Still, in hindsight, there were a lot of things we could have done better as Malacañang through Sec. Sonny Coloma belatedly acknowledged. I got the impression that our government officials were rattled by the enormity of the challenge and made it worse by going into a state of denial.

It was unfortunate the administration started on the wrong foot by blaming LGU failure. It wasn’t reassuring since LGUs are part of government too.

Three cabinet members should have shown they were in control from the start: DILG Sec. Mar Roxas, DND Sec. Volt Gazmin and DSWD Sec. Dinky Soliman. Of the three, only Dinky seems to be up to her challenge.

Sec. Mar should have been the Yolanda disaster czar, inasmuch as he controls the national police and the local government units. This time, Sec. Mar failed big time. Peace and order became a serious problem in Tacloban with no police visibility specially in the early post Yolanda days.

In the midst of an outcry over the slow distribution of relief goods, media reports Mar saying that they are still “studying how they will release relief goods.” Shouldn’t that be something done before the typhoon’s landfall?

That’s typically Mar. Worse, Sec. Mar may have been the bottleneck in the relief distribution process in an even more negative way. Former investigative reporter JP Fenix lamented in his blog Sec. Mar ordered that all distribution of relief operation require his clearance.

JP then writes about a private group that was ready to distribute relief goods early but found it difficult to do so. “…to land the goods in Tacloban airport – they report that it needs Mar Roxas’ permission. Going over land, they say Roxas has to sign off on it. The answer was simply: ‘No.’” There should have been some way to encourage private sector relief efforts at a time when government was still getting its act together.

Government was extremely slow to address the problems caused by the collapse of the LGUs. Worse, P-Noy made the awful mistake of blaming the miserable situation on the failure of the LGUs to prepare. It only showed government didn’t have a Plan B in case the LGUs disintegrated as it did.

Anderson Cooper, a CNN reporter wondered in his report: “As for who exactly is in charge of the Philippine side of this operation, that is not really clear.” Sec. Rene Almendras had to face media to dispute the accusation that government is absent at ground zero.

Sec. Almendras gave the impression that he and Sec. Jojo Ochoa have been tasked by P-Noy to belatedly take overall control of the logistics of the disaster response operations. I take that as a slap on Sec. Mar. Running a large logistical operation like that should be his area because as DILG head he has more resources in place than the two Palace-based officials. 

The DND Secretary had never been known to be useful so even if he is theoretically the key man on disaster response, expectations are low. Remember how he even made a wrong report on China putting concrete slabs on a contested area which had to be later on denied by P-Noy. Indeed, I heard a rumor that the Palace is thinking of replacing him even before Yolanda struck.

Still, the DND Chief could have done more to get troops into the devastated Tacloban area quickly and help the overstretched local PNP with peace and order. I am told the Tacloban Mayor on Day 2 requested the national government for two Marine battalions to immediately establish peace and order and help in rescue and relief operations.

A request to augment the PNP in Tacloban was also made because only 25 of the 280 local police were left.  All the requests were ignored even as P-Noy himself acknowledged the police problem to CNN’s Christianne Amanpour. A handful of men from the Bureau of Fire Protection and MMDA were sent five days into the crisis.

The national government can claim proper warnings were made about the devastating fury of Yolanda. But the Tacloban mayor said in response to P-Noy, they did all that was required of them before Yolanda made its landfall. People were evacuated to shelters but unfortunately, many shelters didn’t withstand the storm surge that came with the strong winds.

Storm surge? It seems like it was the first time they heard that. The national government should have explained what storm surge is… the possibility of tsunami-like waves moving as far as 8 kilometers inland. They know tsunami and they may have even done drills on it… but storm surge?

The President was also overly defensive in his public utterances. That sarcastic remark, “But you did not die, right?”, to a local businessman complaining about the breakdown of peace and order didn’t present P-Noy in the best light as a crisis leader.

Then again, that’s P-Noy. We all know he lacks EQ or the ability to empathize with other people’s feelings so he comes out looking rather insensitive. His lack of EQ shouldn’t normally matter. But he is President of the Republic and there are demands on him and his public demeanor that may unfortunately be beyond his ability to satisfy.

The worse part of the administration’s failure was its inability to timely communicate what it was doing. They wasted the total attention of mass media focused on them. Instead, the absence of communication left everybody to come to their own conclusions based on the mayhem and suffering projected on television screens worldwide.

I was hoping that Sonny Coloma would step into the void somehow and provide that communication leadership. Sonny seems to be doing a good job as spokesman lately. We didn’t see much of him, as he resurfaced only last Thursday. It was good Sec Sonny admitted shortcomings and promised to do better henceforth. His humility was a refreshing change to government’s arrogance up to that point.

Then there is this alphabet soup of an agency that is supposed to be on top of our disaster preparedness. It is headed by an ex-General recommended by Sec. Volt Gazmin, I am told.

Well… P-Noy experienced the ex-general’s lack of competence first hand. P-Noy was so irritated that he lambasted the ex-general on national TV for failure to provide him essential facts and figures that should have been at his fingertips.

I think we need a better set-up, something like the FEMA of the United States, headed by a qualified civilian with extensive logistical management experience. I hope I will never hear again bureaucrats blaming our country’s geography for their problems in relief distribution. Geography will always be a problem but I see it plainly as logistics management.

There are many Filipino experts in logistics who are mostly working for the consumer goods companies. These are the people we need, not politicians, lackeys of politicians and has-been military officers on top of our disaster management efforts.

That NDRRMC has proven inadequate in Ondoy and now this. We need very competent people who do nothing but contingency planning. We need a national agency focused on reducing risk, preparing for, and leading the response to disaster.

Given that we are supposed to be the most dangerous place on earth for natural calamities, we need ready-to-go operational plans all the time, with alternative plan B or C or D in case conditions change from expected.

Our government should by now have in storage ready for immediate use such things as water purifiers, generators, solar power systems and satellite phones. These are items that are needed in the wake of natural calamities. We shouldn’t have to wait for a US warship to provide those things.

Come to think of it, if the LGU  heads were given satellite phones, P-Noy wouldn’t have been so surprised at the enormity of the damage. Timely information would have enabled the early shipment of relief goods and the  augmentation of manpower needed by the LGUs to give a strong sense of government presence.

There are also other lessons that hopefully we have learned. With reports that sea levels in various locations in the country have significantly risen and expect to rise more in the future, implications in land use policies of government should be recognized.

In sum, dealing with natural disasters like typhoon Yolanda is never easy. But we should have developed a good system through the years to mitigate unforeseen damage.

It was unfortunate government started the blame game as a defensive response to a growing outcry. I have also heard allegations of political blackmail as the administration reportedly pressured the Tacloban mayor to sign a letter declaring he is personally no longer able to function as mayor and he is surrendering all his powers to the DILG Secretary. Could that be why aid took so long to get to Tacloban?

Government needs a good disaster czar with the credibility of Dick Gordon, Joey Salceda or Roy Golez. Other than Dinky Soliman, the characters presently on top of disaster management today look less than capable. Public confidence on the man running this vital function is essential. 

The question that must now be answered: are we prepared if something like Yolanda hits Metro Manila? I honestly don’t think so and that should worry everyone.

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco