Last Tuesday, July 28, or a day after President Aquino delivered his State of the Nation Address, the Australian ambassador to the Philippines, Bill Tweddell, turned over 1,533 housing units to the same number of families in Yolanda-stricken areas in Palo and Tacloban, Leyte. The turnover probably could have been done much earlier. But that would have taken away some of the SONA's lustre.
The Philippine government's response to the Yolanda disaster has been remarkable not only in its slowness but in its vulnerability to suspicions as well. Among the first things rehabilitation czar Panfilo Lacson first noticed on assuming the post (he has since resigned) were the substandard materials used in reconstruction, which is to say disaster is no hindrance for corruption to swiftly seep into the opportunity it presented.
To this day, millions of pesos in promised emergency financial assistance have not been received by the victims, nearly two years after the tragedy despite the glowing press releases from government about the money having already been disbursed. With next year being an election year, it is not difficult to surmise where the money must have been parked.
Had it not been for the tremendous international response to the Yolanda crisis, it would not be difficult to imagine the chaos and anarchy that would have descended on this nation. Unfortunately, the heartwarming international response also allowed this corrupt government to seize the opportunity to ensure its political future by letting the foreign donors take care of the problem and keeping for its own purposes what it should have been spending as a matter of responsibility.
Consider what Australia has done. The houses Australia turned over was funded by a P200 million housing component of its total aid. Its total immediate humanitarian response to the Yolanda disaster was P3 billion. You can just imagine what a huge chunk that has taken from the Philippine government's obligation to its own people.
But Australia is just one of more than 30 countries who came to our aid unbidden. Some countries approximated what Australia has given. Others gave even so much more. Even without any figures, it is easy to see how much of a burden has been lifted from the shoulders of the Philippine government. And yet there was supposed to be a Philippine government response amounting to several tens of billions it owes to its own people.
But as the president craftily avoided mentioning in his speech, tens of thousands of Filipinos in the devastated areas are still living in tents, are still attending school in tents. Clearly the international response, while substantial, is not enough unless the Philippine government itself lives up to its own responsibility and steps in. what seems to have happened, though, is that it has stepped out of the picture.