EDITORIAL - Context failure still bugs post Yolanda 2015

The bow of the cargo ship Eva Jocelyn, whose solitary figure on dry land cut one of the most iconic pictures to emerge from the devastation of Yolanda, is now part of a memorial being built to commemorate the tragedy of the strongest typhoon ever to hit land on record. That typhoon hit the Visayas on November 8, 2013, nearly wiping out the city of Tacloban from the face of the earth.

To those who survived the typhoon, and to those who were able to visit Tacloban shortly thereafter, there is no need to explain the magnitude of Yolanda. What they saw with their own eyes will forever be etched in their memory. But for those who rely on words and pictures, nothing best characterizes the strength of Yolanda than the image of Eva Jocelyn sitting on dry land after the storm.

And yet, even the words and pictures have, even up to this day, failed to put into proper context the presence of Eva Jocelyn on dry land. Indeed, as its picture landed again on the front pages ahead of the second anniversary of Yolanda, the cargo ship was described as merely having run aground. The fact of the matter is, Eva Jocelyn did not merely run aground. To describe her as such is to merely suggest she was swept inland.

That is not exactly the case. The Eva Jocelyn was not just swept inland. It was swept up a hill high up in barangay Anibong in Tacloban. The failure in context was obviously due some inability to see the bigger picture. All photos of the ship have always focused on it as a maritime vessel sitting on dry land. Nobody took in the detail that it was sitting on top of a hill overlooking the Tacloban harbor.

But failure in context hounds not only the Eva Jocelyn. It in fact hounds the entire picture of the Yolanda devastation. Right off the bat, the government has refused to see the calamity for what it was. The official count, for whatever reason, was stopped at 6,000. Government aid was weighed in political terms — "Marcos kayo, Aquino kami." Sarcasm even greeted plaintive pleas for help — "buhay pa naman kayo."

To this day, a lot of financial aid is said to be still sitting in banks unspent, or food items rotting undistributed. There are still many schools that have not been fully rebuilt or repaired. That is because the big picture has totally managed to escape the attention of those who are supposed to pay attention. There is a sense of complacency that has descended in Yolanda's aftermath.

And that is because focus has been concentrated on the swiftness of the response from outsiders. To have no less than 30 countries trying to outdo one another in helping the devastated people get back on their feet seemed like an opium that lulled the senses of those whose responsibility it is to look after its own people. Government saw only life starting to stir back. It failed to appreciate the larger fact that to a great extent, it delegated that responsibility to others.