EDITORIAL - Two counts: Which to and not to stop

There are currently two counts, or tallies, being undertaken on two entirely different matters that many people have been closely following. One is the official casualty count from last month's supertyphoon Yolanda, the other the medal standing of the Philippines in the ongoing Southeast Asian Games.

The official count of casualties from the Yolanda tragedy has inexplicably been stopped by the National Disaster and Risk Reduction Management Council despite the fact the bodies continue to be discovered in the affected areas, particularly in the Tacloban City area.

The count stopped at 6,069 with 1,779 missing. NDRRMC executive director Eduardo del Rosario did not say why the count was stopped despite the continued discovery of bodies. All he said was that life has gone back to normal in Tacloban, which does not really answer the question why the count stopped.

In the absence of any clear answers, people quickly started filling in the blanks, the most compelling suggestion being that the NDRRMC is afraid that the death toll will actually hit the 10,000 figure, considering that the nearly 2,000 missing can, for all intents and purposes, be counted by now as dead.

But why is the NDRRMC afraid that the casualty figure might hit 10,000? Because hitting that figure will put President Aquino in a very embarrassing position. Remember that he had “ordered” zero casualties for Yolanda and even fired a regional police director for surmising that the death toll could hit 10,000?

To NDRRMC executive director Del Rosario, an imprecise death toll is far easier to deal with than an angry president who could fire him. Better to fool around with history than to suffer the same ignominy that befell the police general.

On the other hand, the count that ought to be stopped, or should no longer be followed if it cannot be stopped, is the medal tally in the Southeast Asian Games. The last anyone looked, the Philippines was languishing near the bottom of the heap, in the company of the region's weakest sporting nations.

In the current SEAG, the Philippines cannot rise above the company of Cambodia, Laos, Brunei and Timor Leste. Without meaning to disparage these countries, they have never been sporting powers, thus a gold medal or two for them would be cause already for national celebration.

But the Philippines has sporting pretensions. In word and deed, we always aspire to be in the more illustrious league of the region's stronger sporting nations. Why we are eating their dust instead is thus a cause for great shame. But before the hard questions, better stop the count. You'll only break a heart.