Cooper said nothing new on post-Yolanda

MERE RECAP: There was actually nothing that visiting CNN journalist Anderson Cooper said about the devastation in Tacloban City and the government response to the calamity in the Visayas that had not been said before by local media. By and large, he just confirmed earlier reports.

With due respect, his reportage could not compare to the breadth and the humanity of the coverage by Philippine media, especially the radio-TV networks whose reporters remained standing in the cyclonic winds and storm surge raging around them.

Most of Cooper’s comments — including that on the apparent absence of government — merely validated what Filipinos following the post-Yolanda coverage of the local networks already knew.

One handicap of Cooper was that he had not stayed longer nor visited enough of the devastated towns outside Tacloban to gain a fair appreciation of the overall situation and its meaning.

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UNEVEN REACTION: Although it was a mere reiteration of local reports, the coverage of CNN stung the Aquino administration much more than that of the Philippine media.

One reason for Malacañang’s uneven reaction to the local and the foreign press is that the media handlers of President Noynoy Aquino usually do not take Filipino journalists seriously.

The media sector already singing praises to the administration since the 2010 presidential campaign is captive anyway, so their hosannas have minimal satisfaction value.

On the other hand, the critical sectors are routinely dismissed as paid mouthpieces of the previous administration. So Palace apologists and writers imbedded in media usually answer criticisms with ad hominem instead of refute issues raised.

Those in-between or those who strive to be balanced are handled variously. When they commend the administration they gain an approving nod, and when they make critical remarks innuendos are made that they are on somebody’s payroll.

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INTIMIDATION: Another reason why the foreign media are given preferential attention is that colonial-minded Filipino officials are still beholden to fair-skinned parachute journalists.

When a foreign correspondent thrusts a microphone to the Philippine president and warns that his (mis)handling of the disaster could define his fragile regime, that suddenly puts him on the defensive.

Baseless or not, the visitor’s remarks beamed to the world are often universally swallowed. The self-serving statements of a third world leader are no match to the pronouncements of a media veteran who had covered various world hot spots.

The comparison becomes even more lopsided when the local leader is seen as incompetent or, worse, lying.

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SAMAR RELIEF: We chanced on Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone the other night as he was preparing to fly back to Guiuan town (pop. 47,000) the next morning to press his relief work in his province of 461,300, one of the worst-hit Visayan provinces.

He lamented that many people, including those monitoring developments from abroad, think the ground zero of the devastation is Tacloban, the regional center where national officials and media (such as Cooper) congregate.

Evardone, who is tapping his network made over his many years in media and politics, told us that a US Marine C-130 which he had borrowed (!) would be loaded with privately donated relief goods and flown straight to Guiuan.

(We have noticed that some impatient donors, including many from abroad, have been bypassing the cumbersome government bureaucracy and going straight to the communities they want to help.)

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WIPED OUT: Updating us, Evardone said his province sustained casualties numbering 233, missing 47, injured 5,746, families affected 72,465, totally damaged houses 26,668, and partially damaged houses 72,465.

Eastern Samar has 22 municipalities and one city (Borongan). Towns hardest hit were Lawaan, Balangiga, Giporlos, Quinapondan, Hernani, Balangkayan, Salcedo, Mercedes and Guiuan. The entire province was virtually wiped out, he said.

In Guiuan, even big buildings and a sports stadium were flattened. The roof of the church, which dates back to the 1700s, had been blown off, blurring a historical item that Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan arrived there in 1521.

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HOW TO REBUILD: Evardone said an aerial survey he made after the typhoon has kept him asking how his province (he used to be the governor) could recover, even with generous assistance from outside.

Admitting he still did not know how or where to start the reconstruction after relief is completed, he said he was ready to accept help from wherever it comes. (It was at this point that he mentioned his “borrowing” a US C-130 to ferry relief goods.)

“Some 80 percent of my constituents rely on coconut but the trees are either uprooted or toppled down,” he noted. “It takes five to 10 years to plant a coconut tree and nurture it till it bears fruit.”

“A new variety can start bearing fruit in three to five years,” he said, “But in the meantime what will the poor farmers do to eke out a living for their families?”

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FIRST HIT: Exactly seven years ago, on Nov. 18, I lay on the fine sand on Calicoan island watching visitors soaking in the unspoiled beauty of Guiuan. I slept on the beach that night, having in mind awaking there at the first crack of dawn. That was an experience!

Evardone told us that Eastern Samar, in Guiuan to be exact, is where the first ray of sunlight hits the Philippines at daybreak. (Read what I wrote of Calicoan island then. Visit: http://tinyurl.com/lpgv79n)

Little did I know that seven years later, it was not the sun but a super typhoon that would blow in from the Pacific and make its first landfall in Guiuan -- and proceed to kill from 5,000 to 7,000 in its sweep of the Visayan islands with 315-kph winds and storm surges.

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