Where is government?

More than 30 countries and countless other private local and foreign organizations are responsible for quickly responding to the needs of people in areas devastated by supertyphoon Yolanda. Many of them have vowed to stay on and continue helping.

It is difficult to imagine what would have happened if the Philippine government had been left to its own resources and devices to respond to the calamity. Clearly the Philippine government is neither prepared for nor capable of handling disasters of Yolanda's magnitude.

This much, the Philippine government can be forgiven. There is no squeezing water from a stone. If the Philippine government did not have the means for a swift and efficient disaster response, it is too late in the day to cry over spilt milk. If there are lessons to be learned, they are for tomorrow's use.

What cannot be forgiven is the seeming resignation of the same Philippine government that others are taking care of the post-Yolanda problem. It appears that it has completely entrusted the task of rebuilding and rehabilitation to the charity and kindness of others.

I could be wrong, but that is the impression given me by the admission of Panfilo Lacson that right now there is still no rehab master plan that he can proceed from, six months after the typhoon. Not only that but Lacson seems to suggest that politics is behind the lack of cooperation by other officials in government.

I would not blame Lacson if he indeed smells politics in the air. The entire Philippine environment is rife with it. It seems the Philippine government has forgotten Yolanda completely and is now deeply preoccupied with its political fortunes come election year 2016.

Sorry, Sharon, but other than looking out for you, I simply do not see anything that can qualify Francis Pangilinan as the country's adviser on food security, the new position created for him by Noynoy Aquino in preparation for a new run at the Senate by that time.

And as I was writing this, the news came that another of Noynoy's partymates in the Liberal Party, Ayong Maliksi, will be taking his oath this week as new chairman of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, an apparent consolation after losing his bid for Cavite governor last year.

Maliksi's appointment was described in the news as "the first in a wave of fresh appointments" of Noynoy allies who lost in the last election. If this is not political preoccupation over and above the more pressing needs in the Yolanda-hit areas, I don't know what is.

To me it is criminal abandonment and negligence for the Philippine government to just drop everything in the care of the thousands of foreign and local humanitarian volunteers while it begins to go about its merry ways of political preoccupation.

To this day, six months after Yolanda, the biggest mall in Tacloban has not fully reopened. It has only reopened its supermarket section but has limited its operating hours to only 5 p.m. To me, nothing more clearly indicates that things are not back to normal in Tacloban and I will tell you why.

The owner of the mall in Tacloban is one of the country's largest conglomerates. It is owned by one of the country's taipans. With all the resources at its disposal, I do not think it cannot reopen the mall in a month if it truly wanted to.

But I think it does not want to, at least not yet. And that is because things are not yet normal. Many have not fully recovered. The state of things can quickly crumble given the right circumstances. And the reason life is not back to normal is because the Philippine government is busy being preoccupied with other things.

True, there are thousands of foreign and local volunteers who have committed to stay on and help the people get back on their feet. Why, even the young Korean soldiers who were among the first to arrive are still there to help clean up and maintain order.

But no matter how great a job these volunteers are doing, nothing beats having your very own government being on top of things, of seeing your own government being in charge. But where is that government? Oh you see it in the news, going after its political enemies, and entrenching its political friends.