The Yolanda legacy

It was the second year yesterday since the world's strongest typhoon to ever hit land nearly wiped out Tacloban from the face of the earth and brought many other areas across the Visayas to a state of devastation so crippling they have never recovered even to this day. But do you know what Malacañang deputy spokesperson Abigail Valte said? She said the Philippine government has done better with Yolanda than the US government did with Katrina.

I don't know where Valte got such a wild idea. But even granting, for the sake of the argument, that Valte had some basis for her assertion, she is still way off the mark with regard to the issue. The issue is that the Philippine government's response to Yolanda, both immediately after the typhoon and in the years after, had been woefully inadequate. How America responded to Yolanda is not at issue here in the Philippines.

The US government doing worse with Katrina is scant consolation to Filipinos in Yolanda-stricken areas who up to this day continue to struggle to get on with their lives. How the US did with Katrina will not put food on the table of Yolanda victims who lost their means of livelihood, will not put a roof over the heads of those who lost their homes.

Between Valte, who is rooted in insulation in Malacañang trying to devise means to make her principal look good, and former senator Panfilo Lacson, who was at one time the rehabilitation czar for Yolanda but soon after quit in frustration for lack of government support, I would take the word of Lacson because he at least had set foot on the ground where the devastation was and should know whereof he speaks.

And according to Lacson, at about the same time that Valte was trying to make Noynoy Aquino's government look good on the second anniversary of Yolanda, the different government agencies tasked to rehabilitate the Yolanda areas are not doing their jobs. He said these agencies have not focused on the job at hand and many of the programs meant to address Yolanda-related problems have not been implemented.

This is not to say that nothing has ever risen out of the ruins. The truth of the matter is, a lot has already improved in the devastated areas. There is a lot of rebuilding going on. Large communities have sprung boasting of brand new disaster resilient homes. Many schools have been built or repaired. So why is there still so much bitching going on? Because most of these rehabilitation efforts are private or foreign initiatives.

Almost every community of new homes and rebuilt schools has a foreign or private donor behind it. So swift, massive and efficient has the private and foreign response to Yolanda been that perhaps it has become its own drawback. Perhaps the government of Noynoy Aquino, seeing how so much has been already done, decided to hold back and stand down, allowing its own responsibilities to its people to be performed by others.

No wonder Noynoy Aquino and his top officials did not go to Tacloban for the second anniversary of Yolanda. If their presence did not make sense when it was needed in the aftermath of the typhoon, why would it make sense now, two years after. Perhaps it was a matter of security that they had to make themselves scarce at an activity where their presence can only evoke bitter and painful memories.

Holding back and standing down is truly a hallmark of Noynoy Aquino's administration. Making comparisons with others is another. It simply cannot do a job on its own as a matter of course, which is what its responsibility requires. From Yolanda to Mamasapano, the trend continues. It freezes when confronted with a tough but right thing to do. And when pressed to account by a frustrated nation, it refuses to take responsibility and starts pointing a finger at others to make comparisons.