Vultures/heroes

They are like vultures feasting on carcasses, the politicians who have made Cagayan de Oro and Iligan excursion destinations, high-visibility sorties for very public displays of charity.

There is, I suppose, no more efficient way to establish name-recall, achieve the appropriate pro-poor credentials and win the eternal gratitude of the dispossessed. All the world’s media are in those two forsaken cities, documenting the trauma, the devastation and the follies surrounding a calamity whose death toll could possibly exceed 1,500 and whose human toll is incalculable.

In fact, even the major broadcast networks are trying to outdo each other in a battle for goodwill. They have sent in not just their journalists to do their thing on the ground, using all the awesome misery as backdrop. They have also sent in their stables of matinee stars, bounced back to the national audience their momentary appearances in the mud by reporting the event as news.

According to one report, a convoy of trucks carrying relief goods were withdrawn as the calamity-stricken lined up for relief goods. They were subsequently repositioned to enable presidential sister Kris Aquino to make an appearance, distribute some bags of relief assistance and talk disproportionally long about it.

The scenes of devastation and death are sickening by themselves. Some TV news clips make it all more sickening by featuring the publicity-hungry and credit-grabbing personalities on the foreground, relegating the actual victims to the background, a nameless gaggle of the devastated.

The calamity is being used as props. A cynical carnival unfolds here. The subtext here appears to be: Oh, how can all of us disaster-prone mortals ever manage without the stars descending from the heavens to hand us a bag of instant noodles!

From the steady stream of news reports, it is difficult to figure out how efficiently the rescue and relief effort is going. To be sure, there are corpses being pulled out of the mud away from camera range. The death toll continues its appalling rise.

Some of the more distant settlements appear to be getting assistance only after they complained. Perhaps they are too inconvenient to reach for the stars in town.

It is always best to leave the professionals in disaster management in charge of the entire rescue and relief effort. By the book, the mayors of the two most devastated cities ought to be the ground commanders, orchestrating the vastly challenging relief operation. We can only hope they are not bullied aside by the stream of bigwigs winging into town for their respective photo-ops.

The most comforting thing, in tragedies like this one, is the extraordinary heroism of so many ordinary citizens, always undaunted by the scale of calamity.

The crew of one cargo vessel, unaware of the calamity that just happened, came across people washed out to sea, clinging to logs far away from shore. The crew rescued all of them and delivered them to safety.

Throughout the archipelago, victims of previous calamities from Pangasinan to Leyte, threw themselves to the task of scraping together assistance for the victims of Sendong. The people of Pampanga, only now emerging from their own bout with flooding, rallied around their governor and were among the first to deliver assistance to Iligan.

Young students abandoned shopping and parties to volunteer in the collection centers, packing bags of relief goods for shipment to the south. It is amazing how relief centers could run around the clock purely on volunteered labor. Local governments in Mindanao, particularly from the cities of Zamboanga and Davao, sent in their firefighters, water filtration equipment and brigades of volunteers to the beleaguered communities.

In my own neighborhood, there is a collection effort underway. Closets are opened and all the items of dry clothing that could be spared are pulled out and donated.

In our church, the collection for flood victims appears robust. The generosity is heartwarming. It is as if the entire community decided to have a more meager Christmas feast so that money can be raised to help the flood-stricken.

I recall, when Ondoy hit the Metro Manila area, the people of Cagayan de Oro responded so selflessly, sending help to the beleaguered imperial capital. Today, the kind gesture will be returned many times over.

Nothing, of course, can ever be raised to replace the many lives lost to the surging rivers. Material donations can only do so much to alleviate the grief of those who lost loved ones in that ugly night of rain. But without the generous support of a whole nation, the level of misery in the two cities will be overwhelming and the toll even more horrible.

The flood of relief goods coming into Northern Mindanao is a spectacle in itself. It is a wave of support from hundreds of thousands of generous donors who do not require a photo-op or even passing recognition. We are a nation pummeled by so much calamity we have learned to stand staunchly by each other, to muster so much generosity. 

It is the quiet heroism of so many, especially those who contribute themselves, venturing into the zone of calamity to aid the injured and the sick, offering long hours to help collect the relief goods, that is truly inspiring.

As we prepare for Christmas, spare a moment to honor those who will stay the night with the victims, consoling the grief-stricken and attending to the desperate. They are the ones truly representing the spirit of this season.

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And continue giving. The need is truly immense.