Rising from the ruins

Four months after super typhoon “Yolanda” struck the Philippines on November 8 last year, the lives of the people who survived this disaster are painstakingly going back on track. Although still relying much on relief goods, food and other basic assistance being extended to them, the people in Yolanda-stricken areas are trying hard to show to the world they can get back on their feet with their kind help.

It took several months for President Benigno “Noy” Aquino III to finally admit the shortcomings of the national government in providing immediate relief assistance to the Yolanda disaster victims in Leyte, Samar and the rest of Eastern and Central Visayas. People in the worst hit areas like the cities of Tacloban and Palo in Leyte and in Guian, Samar suffered the most from the failed government’s disaster response and relief system.

As overall presiding officer of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), President Aquino only needs to follow the template. There is no need to reinvent the wheel.

National Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas II are the co-chairmen of NDRRMC, an inter-agency body created by law. They are the “alter egos” of the President who flew to Tacloban City and were at ground zero before Yolanda struck.

But Gazmin and Roxas, backed up by their respective staff and government resources at their disposal, miserably failed in their task. By way of excuse, the two Aquino Cabinet officials underscored the local authorities are the first responders. However, they explained, the first responders themselves were disaster victims.

A lot of finger pointing ensued as the Philippine government came under fire for the seeming disorganized rescue and relief operations. Fortunately, foreign aid continues to generously pour in to help Yolanda-affected people of Tacloban City and other areas.

The trail of widespread devastation left by Yolanda was so massive, triggering disaster and humanitarian responses from the global community to assist the Philippine government still struggling to account for the total number of fatalities.

Confronted last week by high school students from Tacloban City, President Aquino grudgingly apologized for the government’s failure. “We are also students, we want to learn from this experience and do even better next time,” the President told the students, adding that they also picked up lessons from past disasters.

Already way past the middle of his six-year term of office, P-Noy is still talking like he has yet to learn the ropes of governance. This only gives credence to public criticisms that the country is being run by a “student council” with P-Noy as class president.

Since he has already apologized, is President Aquino also ready to concede mistake for his previous glaring insistence on the number of Yolanda casualties? During the CNN interview, P-Noy maintained the casualty count would be around 2,000, contrary to police estimates of 10,000.

From making this off-the-cuff estimate of 10,000 death toll that foreign media quoted, Tacloban City Police Chief Elmer Soria got sacked. Purportedly, Soria was relieved “because there was indication of trauma” from the Yolanda disaster and that the police official needed to undergo stress debriefing. 

From the latest public declaration of the NDRRMC, the official Yolanda death toll stood at 6,268, with more than 1,000 still missing. The NDRRMC already stopped the public bulletin on the body count.

There were reports that scores of cadavers are still buried under tons of debris yet to be cleared, especially along the coastal areas in the provinces of Leyte where most of the houses were totally destroyed by the storm surge spawned by Yolanda.

As of March 14, the NDRRMC reported about 890,895 families, or 4,095,280 individuals, remain homeless. A few months before the onset of the rainy season, these homeless individuals remain heavily dependent on their livelihood provided mostly by non-government groups while government rehabilitation projects are taking place on the ground.

Quietly doing his job behind the scene, Agriculture Secretary Proceso “Procy” Alcala has been helping Yolanda-destroyed rice farms in Eastern Visayas to recover, short of miracle, from the ruins of this world’s most destructive storm. His department’s rehabilitation program to help Yolanda rice farmers get back on their feet is happening without much fanfare.

With the help of the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the DA secretary successfully implemented the distribution of bags of seeds and fertilizers to Yolanda-hit rice farmers last November. The Eastern Visayas rice farmers are now ready to reap the harvest of the first post-Yolanda crop later this month, Alcala disclosed.

From calculations of the DA, the projected rice harvest for the first quarter of this year from Eastern Visayas would reach as much as 219,234 metric tons. Compared though to previous year’s harvest for the same period, this is 5.6 percent less. This is largely because of the reduced area of hectares of rice planted. From 73,909 hectares last year, rice planted was reduced to 72,824 hectares, or 1.7 percent less land that remained tillable after Yolanda. 

For the Yolanda-displaced fisher folks, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) has provided for about 13,375 boat construction/repair materials, motor engine, fishing gear and start-up capital to fishermen beneficiaries. The BFAR, an attached agency of the DA, cited 97 percent (13,045 units) of boats are either repaired or currently being repaired while 330 fisher folk-beneficiaries were given new boats.

The total cost of damage from Yolanda is estimated to be almost P40 billion, including infrastructure and agriculture. Stirred by the indomitable Filipino spirit to fight despair and hopelessness, the struggle to rise from the ruins will keep Yolanda-affected folks up for the challenge while the national leadership is still in the learning stage up to now.