On our own feet

BMW AG vice president for importer regions Graeme Grieve flew to Manila from Singapore the other night with the main mission of donating nearly P2 million to the Philippine Red Cross.

The Munich-based Grieve told me that as soon as he saw images of the destruction from Super Typhoon Yolanda, he decided that the Philippines could use some help from the German automotive giant.

BMW, whose CSR program started about 10 years ago, also fielded 10 of its X-series SUVs to help in the mobilization of relief goods and volunteers.

The P2-million donation was matched by BMW’s local distributor, Asian Carmakers Corp. head Jose Alvarez, who happens to be governor of Palawan. The province was also hit by Yolanda, but Alvarez says they evacuated coastal communities and brought rice stocks to safe storage sites. He is confident that the province, a top tourism destination, can recover quickly.

Other areas obviously will take many years to recover, and will need a lot of sustained assistance. At this time we are lucky to have corporate giants like BMW, Coca-Cola and even Swedish furniture maker Ikea (the biggest private donor) contributing to ease the plight of Philippine disaster victims. This is on top of the assistance provided by many local companies, and on top of the massive aid from nearly 50 countries and international organizations.

Even disaster victims are donating, such as Lim Bon Liong of Jasponica rice. He lost P55 million when Typhoon Santi battered the rice granaries of Central Luzon but has now donated rice, blankets and at least P900,000 in cash to Yolanda’s victims in Iloilo.

As of yesterday, there was no letup in the arrival of assistance from overseas. Ships, aircraft, military personnel and civilian volunteers from many countries are bringing all forms of assistance to the disaster zone, from the airdrop of relief packs in isolated areas to the quick restoration of schoolhouses by an Israeli engineering team.

We have to be particularly grateful because in many capitals, foreign aid allocations are nearing depletion as the year draws to a close.

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Even as we make sure the outpouring of international goodwill will be fully accounted for and properly utilized, with credit going to the donors rather than credit-grabbing or epal politicians, we also have to be ready for the day the assistance dries up.

It’s sure to dry up; aid allocations are not bottomless, and the next big disaster in another developing country can quickly divert the world’s attention from Yolanda’s handiwork. That mountain of relief goods will eventually be all used up.

That’s when the going gets tough for rehabilitation efforts. Can we stand on our own feet?

Yesterday the government announced that it would call a pledging session for international support in the rehabilitation of the typhoon areas. We can guess that a come-on will be a reassurance that the daang matuwid administration won’t misuse aid. This, however, could be wearing thin in the wake of the pork barrel scandal. There may also be questions on aid utilization once it reaches local politicians.

We can always count on the sympathy and support of certain allies, but the government will have to prepare for the time when Yolanda and Tacloban disappear from the headlines and CNN moves on to the next humanitarian crisis.

The reconstruction work ahead is obviously colossal. Building a city entirely from scratch is easier than what Yolanda’s victims now face. First they must clear all the rubble and give the dead a proper burial or at least a commemorative site. Then they must determine which structures can be still be saved and which should just be written off as a total loss and replaced with something new.

This early, the government should draw up rules to make sure the rehabilitation effort will not become bogged down in red tape. Contractors, investors and small entrepreneurs like to say that starting anything in this country is like eating glass – there is a huge pile of signatures and documents required, with each step often featuring someone asking for “facilitation fee.” This cannot be the case in post-Yolanda Tacloban and the other disaster areas.

A year after Typhoon Sendong spawned deadly flash floods in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan cities in December 2011, I visited Cagayan de Oro and saw evacuees still housed in tent communities in the heart of the city. Development of their relocation sites, I was told, was crawling along.

In Compostela Valley and several areas in Davao which were devastated by Typhoon Pablo in December last year, villagers must wait several years before plantations are fully restored and they get their livelihoods back.

Once the news teams leave, there is less urgency on the part of government disaster mitigation authorities to focus on rebuilding communities and lives.

Most of the foreign aid will also end, with the expectation that the recipient country will be able to pick up where the international community left off.

The nation is grateful for all the help from friends around the world, but we must be prepared for the inevitable: soon we’ll be on our own.