EDITORIAL - UN: Philippine interest in Yolanda victims waning

Accusations that government has not been doing enough for the victims of supertyphoon Yolanda are not just a lot of hot air, or worse, baseless charges made by political critics of the administration to discredit the president. The accusations are being made by actual typhoon victims who, to this day, either have not received the promised aid or continue to live in miserable conditions because the aid went somewhere else.

The accusations are easily verifiable. All one has to do is visit the typhoon ravaged areas and talk to the affected residents. Nothing beats being able to live out the misery by actually experiencing it on the ground. The next best way to know the truth is to hear it from independent observers who cannot be accused of fabricating stories or playing politics.

And that is precisely what the United Nations Special Raporteur on Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons reported after a 10-day visit to and assessment of Yolanda-stricken areas. According to no less than the UN special raporteur, Chaloka Beyani, "the attention on helping survivors rendered homeless by Super Typhoon Yolanda was waning.

"Regrettably, it appears that funding and attention to IDPs is waning. The national government, together with its local government partners, must ensure that it follows through on that assistance that it has provided to date to ensure that it truly meets the needs and rights of all those displaced," said Beyani in a press conference called to give its initial report on the 10-day Philippine visit.

The truth on the ground could not have been better said. Government has simply sat back after making initial disbursements, never bothering to find out if the assistance it gave had been well spent, or worse, not spent at all. It seems that the government has abandoned its own responsibility to look after its own people to the foreign donors who have done such a tremendous job of providing relief and assisting in the rehabilitation.

The government cannot dismiss the complaints as if they were mere hallucinations cooked up by political enemies. The complaints arise from real situations and are rooted in real facts. And now, no less than the United Nations special raporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons has corroborated the veracity of the complaints.

It is good that the United Nations took notice and has called out attention to the sorry plight of many of Yolanda's victims. It would be adding insult to injury if the assistance that belongs to the victims as a matter of human right gets waylaid, for reasons that very possibly may have something to do with the May 2016 elections. Unless government cleans up its act, people cannot help but suspect the aid had been saved for use in the election.