Time to work

Now that the obligatory calls for unity and working together, of starting anew and perhaps turning over a new leaf have been issued by politicians and pundits, KSPs and the “hindi mo ba ako kilala” brigade, let’s get down to work. With the distractions of making merry and smogging up the air (this time it was more fireworks – bright lights bursting out in fancy patterns – than firecrackers with eardrum-busting bangs, thank goodness) in the effort to drive off the bad spirits of the year of disasters just passed, let’s focus on the tasks at hand – and there are many, way too many.

It has been raining quite heavily in parts of the Visayas since after Christmas. Fortunately, the incessant rain has stopped, although residents are keeping a worried eye on the hovering rainclouds. They are struggling to rebuild their lives, displaying the resilience that has earned the admiration of international relief workers. One family I know in Panit-an, Capiz rebuilt their house with salvaged wood and GI sheets and marine plywood bought with money sent by a daughter working in Manila, and planted the palay they had stored but which got wet when the roof and walls of their house blew away in the storm. Now they are hoping the rain will stop so the palay will survive.

More than anything, people want to get their lives back – by being able to work for their food and shelter through farming or fishing or other honorable means.

Thus it is so important for projects like the Tsinoy community’s Bangkabuhayan to be up and running. The project aims to provide fisher families in three communities in northern Iloilo with bancas equipped with an engine and fishing gear. Last I checked sponsors have signed up for over 100 boats, but many more are needed. Efforts can now be ramped up to get the boats needed for these communities, so the project can move on to help other areas whose residents have expressed need for boats as well.

Organizations like Habitat for Humanity Philippines and Gawad Kalinga are addressing the massive need for housing, typhoon-proof structures away from danger zones. “Build back better” is the new rule for all reconstruction efforts. Just like the phrase “the new normal,” the idea should be taken to heart, for we cannot build houses the same way in the same places if the storms no longer behave in the same way.

Rebuilding what Super Typhoon Yolanda destroyed gives us a rare opportunity to build right, and gives all of us too the opportunity of being part of an historic humanitarian effort. Whether it is giving a boat or helping build a house, helping a child go back to school or helping a family resettle, it’s time to do something.

From Pope Francis’ New Year message comes a couple of relevant questions: How did we live the time God gave us? Did we use it above all for ourselves, for our interests, or did we know how to spend it for others as well?