Needed: Dept of Disaster Preparedness and Relief

Searching for what foreign news reports are talking about the Philippines, especially in the aftermath of the strongest typhoon that struck the planet earth, I stumbled on this Nov. 11 TIME Magazine report by Sophie Brown entitled “The Philippines is the Most Storm-Exposed Country on Earth.” As the TIME reported, “On average, eight or nine tropical storms make landfall in the Philippines each year with another 10 entering Philippine waters. In 2013, only six storms have affected the country. The worst year was 1993 when 10 cyclones pummeled the coastline.”

There is no doubt that we Filipinos are the most experienced people on earth when it comes to typhoons. But like the present and previous governments we never learned any lessons from our vast experience in this storm weary nation. Just like our political system and our economy, the biggest problem of the Filipino people is always the same year after year… that we never get to fix ourselves. We may have the most brilliant minds that are coveted by Asian business leaders, but when it comes to our own… we just don’t know how to fix ourselves! When can we change this type of attitude?

The whole trouble with the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (NDRRMC) is that, for the past three years under President Aquino, their main focus was the flooding in Metro Manila, thanks to Typhoon “Frank,” “Ondoy” and all those typhoons that followed their destructive path. This is why when P-Noy came out on nationwide TV on Nov. 7 in the evening… he was told by the NDRRMC that they were ready and we saw those guys with their rubber boats on the ready. Indeed they were ready for any flooding in Metro Manila. Unfortunately, this time the typhoon hit the Visayas, which was too far from the national capital region.

But then, I’d like to make a point that when it comes to disaster preparedness, they should have brainstormed on the worst-case scenarios. Again, there is no point in preparing for the “usual” typhoons that visit us because we already know what damage they can do in our countryside. It is those super typhoons that the NDRRMC should have prepared for.

This lack of leadership resulted in delays in the distribution of relief goods… and three days later the hungry and the desperate Warays took the law into their own hands and food riots were shown on TV. Should we blame the victims or the ineffective relief efforts? Thankfully, P-Noy was not “lured” into declaring Martial Law in Leyte even if the businessmen urged him to do so as it would have been a violation of the Constitution.

After all this is over, in hindsight, may I suggest that it is high time that we start overhauling the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (NDRRMC) and make it into a Department and change its very long name to Department of Disaster Preparedness and Relief (DPR), after all, we do get a hefty share of natural disasters every now and then. I will write some of my suggestions if people in the government care to listen. 

Meanwhile lawless elements have began to exploit the near absence of our police and security forces and I fully concur with The Philippine STAR’s editorial last Thursday entitled “Disorganized” because that is the best way to describe what’s happening on the ground. If the New People’s Army (NPA) has exploited the situation, it is only because our police forces have let their guard down. This situation made travel within the Province of Leyte very dangerous for trucks bringing relief goods from Luzon and Cebu.

If there is anything I’m truly proud of, even in these desperate times at least in Northern Cebu, you can travel even at night knowing that there are no armed (remember Cebu has been NPA free since the time of Gov. Gwen Garcia) elements that would block your way. In Bantayan Island, Mayor Cris Escario has kept things in order despite the hunger of his constituents as reported to me by Rep. Gwen Garcia, where she thanked the private sector for their non-stop relief effort. So too with Medellin Mayor Ricky Ramirez whom I saw being interviewed by Al Jazeera last Thursday.

After a week of bad, frustrating news of the snail’s pace response by the Philippine government, despite their earlier pronouncement of readiness, finally we got some good news. First was that hand’s on report by CNN Senior Correspondent Anderson Cooper who boarded a US Marine Osprey helicopter to Guiuan, Samar, which still has a usable runway. I been to Guiuan many times in our big bike rides and I even rode my bike up that runway and apparently because of its east-west orientation, there wasn’t much debris on the runway, thus giving CNN that much needed TV coverage.

The best news of all was the arrival of the US Navy Task Force led by the USS George Washington, which is anchored off the coast of Samar. Call it a sense of déjà vu that the US Navy is back in Leyte Gulf after 68-years when Gen. Douglas MacArthur returned to the shores of Leyte as he promised. Those US Navy ships were a sight for sore eyes then as they are now.

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