Signs of life

The word from St. Bernard, Southern Leyte is that the rescuers are getting progressively discouraged about finding more survivors beneath the meters-thick mud and debris wrought by the landslide. Only a little more than a hundred bodies have been recovered as I write this, well into the sixth day after the tragedy.

But, finally, we’re informed, the site of the school where over 200 children, teachers and other persons who were attending a seminar has been pinpointed. Moreover, despite the disappointing results thus far, and the growing difficulties with the hardening mud, the rescuers have vowed to keep plugging on.

We should all thank them, both foreign crews and Philippine contingents alike, for their resolve. As we’ve said many times in this space, we shouldn’t give up hope that some victims have, against all odds, managed to stay alive somehow. As past incidents of this nature, including earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, have proven, even untrained persons can use survival instincts to survive for several days, sometimes even weeks, as the recent Pakistan earthquake illustrated.

There may indeed be distinctions in the survivability of entombments caused by earthquakes, as distinguished from landslides, as some experts have opined. When buildings or houses collapse, there is a better chance that small open spaces and air pockets will be left after the tremors and allow victims to live through the experience until rescuers extricate them.

Apparently, landslides afford slimmer chances of these small spaces and air pockets remaining because of the density of the earth that covers the structures. On the other hand, it cannot be ruled out that boulders and existing walls of overrun buildings may fall in such a way as to form such open spaces. It may be a long shot, but at this point, it is the responsibility of the rescue teams to go for all possibilities, no matter how minuscule.

They know all this, I’m sure, and while we don’t want to cause any false hopes on the part of the relatives and loved ones who are agonizing through this interminable vigil, a premature stoppage or slackening of rescue efforts would also be inexcusable.

The one jarring note, in an otherwise sterling example of local initiative and international cooperation, was a false report that "50 survivors" had been rescued from the buried school by the American military team on site and that the survivors were on their way to a medical facility for treatment and rendezvous with relatives.

No less that an undersecretary of the Department of Interior and Local Government gave credence to the cruel hoax by confirming in media that the DILG official on the scene had allegedly confirmed the report. Later, the USEC sought to distance himself from the fiasco by blaming that official for misleading him.

This sorry incident indicated that the communication effort at the site of the tragedy was in disarray. The relatives of the victims and those still awaiting news on the state or condition of their loved ones had every right to accurate information. Since the false report gave no clue of the identity of the alleged "survivors," it actually raised false hopes on the part of ALL the relatives, loved ones and friends or associates of the missing, hopes that had to be immediately, and cruelly, dashed in the interest of truth.

The US Marine contingent, which wisely had a designated spokesman from the start of this engagement, immediately went on nationwide radio and television to deny that any survivors had been rescued by American soldiers. He did so diplomatically, noting that in stressful situations like that prevailing in St. Bernard, all sorts of unverified information had a tendency to spread like wildfire, if only to fuel people’s hopes.

Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz has since announced that all official announcements will henceforth be made by Secretary of Health Francisco Duque. That’s a helpful start, but the good Secretary, who as far as we know has little, if any, experience with an impatient and rambunctious media, both local and foreign, should be helped to perform this very difficult job.

False information is worse than no information, that’s true, but the focus of media will understandably be with the rescue effort, if only for the drama that extricating a victim in extremis from the rubble affords a worldwide audience. Secretary Duque, in other words, won’t forever be able to refuse comment or disclose pertinent information.

To begin with, there are battalions of newspersons, with satellite equipment and videophones, stationed right beside the local and international rescue teams. They have been there for several days, and nights. Rumors, unverified reports, loose conjectures and incomplete information not in proper context, are all liable to run rife in the area.

The government should make sure it manages the flow of information, without being perceived as trying to stifle or overstate it or mislead the public. The temptation to "get our there" with good, but essentially half-baked, news should be resisted. All you need is another "koryente" like the "50 survivors" yarn to cause chaos at the rescue site.

But at the end of the day, the allegedly "dimming" hopes notwithstanding, the rescuers on the job should be single-minded about finding survivors. Now more than ever, those that might still hanging on to life by the slimmest of threads, need these heroes to get at the truth, one way or the other.

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As I am about to complete this column, I note that this week’s Asia edition of Time Magazine features the 20th anniversary of People Power in the country as its cover story. The article is entitled "Glory Days" but strikes the familiar theme of unfulfilled promises.

"People power," author Anthony Spaeth says, "was the country’s contribution to history, a true gift to the world. For the Philippines, it was everything, and yet not enough." He also makes insightful observations such as: "One obvious conclusion is that the country’s institutions – the legislature, the Supreme Court – have become nearly irrelevant and that the presidency is dangerously weakened. The more pertinent fact: Arroyo’s foes and friends alike keep their eyes on EDSA, the country’s real court of impeachment."

Wow! I’m itching to comment on that, and several other arresting observations. We’ll do that, next time.