Disaster preparedness was all propaganda!

The Philippine government‘s response to the wrath of Super Typhoon “Yolanda” was at best dismal. To think we are a nation that is most experienced with what to do during typhoons, after all we get an average of one per month annually and a Super Typhoon always gets to visit us whenever there is an Aquino living in Malacañang. So where was the national government?

A week ago, we saw President Aquino and the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (NDRRMC) making an appeal on TV for people to be ready. Yes, the TV footages showed how ready government was… with their small boats shown behind. Clearly, it was a Manila centric readiness for the NDRRMC but what good were those small boats in a super typhoon that brought a storm surge very similar to a tsunami? For show???

The President denies “Hindi kami natulog sa pansitan”… perhaps for Tacloban City because they had international and national TV coverage? But the rest of the Visayas in places like Ormoc, Daanbantayan, Bogo City, Medellin, Bantayan Island, Panay, Antique and Palawan, national government was nonexistent. People had to fend for themselves especially that many people did not know how badly they were hit because national media did not assign any reporters in the places I mentioned. Shame on the NDRRMC!

Last Tuesday I got an email from Majlinda Zegiri of BBC who wanted to interview me about the state of Cebu after Super Typhoon “Yolanda” struck. She apparently read my column last Tuesday that the whole world was misled into believing that only Tacloban City was badly hit by the super typhoon. As we wrote, the City of Bogo and the towns of Medellin, Daanbantayan, Malapascua and Bantayan Island all in Northern Cebu were hit just as badly… except they didn’t experience the storm surge that devastated the City of Tacloban. It was a short interview by Tom Hagler over BBC World Radio and we can only hope and pray that the world heard our voice.

Right after that BBC interview, around 1:22 p.m. Tuesday, I was jolted by a 4.8 magnitude aftershock to remind us that the Bohol earthquake, which will turn a month tomorrow, still needs our help. After the BBC interview I spent the rest of the day searching for basic goods for our relief effort.

I went to Hypermart where I convinced store manager Angelo Carandang that stores like them should prepare pre-packed relief goods in order for people who have money, can simply buy these relief goods in a convenient way and bring it immediately to the many agencies that are all over Metro Cebu seeking help for the typhoon victims.

A day before the typhoon struck, people went on a panic buying spree and literally emptied many shelves of foodstuff, flashlights and batteries. What I discovered last Tuesday afternoon when I went to different stores is that, many people who had relatives in Northern Cebu trooped to the supermarkets and groceries and bought all sorts of foodstuff, including water bottles and most of these stuff were running out in the stores I went to. Even rice and plastic bags were running out. At least we heard that the Bureau of Customs released 90 container vans confiscated with smuggled rice. Thanks!

Thanks also to Globe Telecom, Smart Communications and Sun Cellular for their earnest efforts in restoring their destroyed cellsites in the typhoon ravaged areas. Perhaps they should now find ways to weatherproof their cellsites or make these towers bend over until the storm passes through. We live in these times where the cellphone has become a necessity rather than a luxury that it used to be. Communication is so important so our relatives and friends would know who died or who are missing and most important of all, what they need the most.

Bantayan Island, my wife’s hometown, which is the Egg Basket of Cebu, had nearly all its poultry farms destroyed. So the owners sold their chickens at P50 apiece and even lower at P20. This meant that the Bantayanons had food… but no water and no rice. Please don’t give out noodles if you don’t give water with it. Information like this is vital and crucial so that you will know what relief goods they need the most.

Frankly speaking, the private sector had to fend for themselves. The various Rotary Clubs of Cebu, the All-Terrain Medical Relief Organization (AMRO) of Dr. Wyben Briones who doesn’t need the government to tell them where they should go. These civic groups were ahead of the Cebu Provincial Government helping out the beleaguered Northern Cebu.

If there was looting in Tacloban City, thanks to the NDRRMC’s delay in sending relief goods to the people that needed them the most. Last July 4 was the National Disaster Consciousness Month with the theme “Ligtas na Bayan, Maunlad na Pamayanan.” Three years into the Aquino pegime P-Noy has apparently learned nothing from that exercise. Shame on him!

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