Calamities beyond the Philippines

Filipinos were not the only ones who suffered from calamities. At almost the same time that the Philippines was experiencing the wrath of typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng, the World Heritage town of Hoi An in Vietnam was also flooded, Indonesia was wrecked with intensity 8 earthquake and Samoa, one of 15 islands in the Pacific was swept over by tsunami.

I was occupied with UNESCO work in Germany and France when these news reached me daily by CNN and International Herald Tribune.

 After quakes, chaos and panic strike Sumatra

Padang lies in the west-central coast of Sumatra, Indonesia’s largest island, whose western coast is stippled with dozens of volcanoes. It is exposed to the Indian Ocean. Aceh, the tsunami-damaged province, is at the tip of Sumatra. Malaysia and Singapore lie parallel on the east coast of the island.

Padang also sits alongside the Sunda Trench, part of the notorious Ring of Fire, the volatile network of volcanic arcs and oceanic trenches that partly encircles the Pacific Basin. The ring – and Sumatra in particular – is a zone of frequent earthquakes and volcanic activity.

Nearly every building in Padang, taller than three stories suffered damage from the initial quake, which hit just 30 miles away, and the city’s three main hospitals all collapsed. At the biggest hospital, Djamil, beds were pulled from the wreckage to serve the injured and makeshift tents were placed in the parking lot. Soon, however, all the mattresses were soaked in blood. Gloves, medicine bottles and bandages were strewn on the ground. Dozens of bodies were piled nearby, and weeping citizens searched the faces for missing relatives.

The day before the calamity, a rumor based on local earthquake folklore raced through Padang, a city of 900,000 people that another large quake was coming, and people lined up by the thousand for gasoline and food. Actually, six villages sank and disappeared during the series of earthquakes.

One focus of emergency workers was a collapsed four-story concrete building in central Padang, where 30 children had been taking classes when the quake struck, the Associated Press reported. Parents of missing students stayed up all night, waiting for signs of life. Four students were found alive and six bodies were dug from the rubble. However, Jamil, a volunteer, said that dozens were still missing and it was quite difficult to find more victims.

Destruction caused along the Indian Ocean

Four days earlier, thousands of miles away in the basin, an underwater earthquake measuring 8.0 created a tsunami that sent walls of water crashing into the islands of Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga.

The epicenters of the Samoan and Indonesian quakes, located about 6,000 miles apart, brought back vivid memories of the horrific tsunami that ravaged South Asia and Southeast Asia on December 26, 2004. Nearly a quarter-million people across the Indian Ocean region were killed.

The Samoan tsunami and the quake in Indonesia, while stemming from similar causes, were not directly connected, according to Julie Dutton, a geophysicist at the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colorado.

The day of the Samoan tsunami

Sia Figiel of Pavaian, American Samoa described her experience in the Editorial Opinion of the International Herald Tribune: “We awoke that Tuesday morning to the house shaking. Earthquakes in this part of the world usually last for a minute or two. But this time the house shook for five minutes. Then just as suddenly as it had started, everything became quiet.”

“As I was heading to my office, just after I had dropped my three boys at their school, I heard on the radio that cars were floating like toys in the parking lot of the Pago Plaza shopping center. The announcer warned that the tsunami’s second and third waves were expected to hit on Tutuila Island in less than an hour’s time. Instinctively, I swung the car back toward the school to get my children.

“The road was jammed with traffic and, at the school, frantic parents were calling out their children’s names. Teachers urged us to remain calm. The principal said our children had been evacuated to the highest point on the school ground and we could pick them up there. Some children were singing, while others were praying and crying. It was quite a sight.

“My 10-year old was in tears. ‘Mom, I don’t want to die’ was how he greeted me. My only thought was to drive to the highest accessible point on Tutuila – the village of Aoloau. The drive up, usually five minutes, took 20. it seemed everyone was heading there. We stayed in Aoloau for three hours, listening to the car radio to updates on the rising death toll and missing people. Two radio stations had been lost. The only one still transmitting was a religious station. We listened to prayers as we watched waves gathering momentum below in the distance.”

World concern for disaster victims

“I decided to return home since our house is at least six miles from the coast. I decided we would be safe there. It was becoming too chaotic where we were and the exhaust from the cars and trucks climbing the hill was choking. As we descended, a tremendous amount of traffic was still on its way up. We got home around 11 a.m.”

“By 6 p.m., everything was still. No wind moved the trees. I responded to email messages from friends in New Zealand, Los Angeles, Seattle, New York, Michigan – an outpouring of concern for our island. I heard the bells ring for evening prayer. Our prayer was one of gratitude that our family and neighbors were safe. But our hearts were with – are still with – those who cannot say the same, who would sleep for the first time that night without a son, an aunt, a cousin. Their loss is our loss.”

Vietnam town returns to life

A former trading town that was one of the country’s main ports in pre-colonial times and then a ruin during and after the war, Hoi An has been restored into a tourism showpiece. This old town was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1999, and local officials project that 1.2 million tourists will visit this year and that the number will more than double over the next six years.

Hoi An was one of the areas hit hardest by the typhoon that battered central Vietnam last September 30, killing more that 90 people. This storm also killed more than 270 people in the Philippines and 14 in Cambodia.

Low-lying parts of Hoi An’s old town, with its mustard-yellow walls and curved tile roofs, remained flooded for several days with people trapped on upper floors. Small wooden boats piled high with produce delivered food and water. Some boatmen did what the people of Hoi An have learned to do best, tourism, ferrying visitors up and down the flooded streets.

“Come visit our gallery!” Hoang Thi Thao called from the flooded Thanh Lich Gallery to a passing boat as she washed down her mud-stained walls. “Maybe tomorrow,” was the response.

Around the corner in a clothing shop, the owner, Do Thi Nga, 47, argued with a tour guide who had come to pick up clothing ordered by her clients. The flood had stopped the tailors’ work, and the tourists were leaving after making a two-thirds down payment. “I don’t know what I’m going to do,” said the tour guide, Nguyen Thi Ngoc Phuong, as she climbed back on her bicycle.

1992 RA 7279 could have prevented the effects of Philippine calamities

I thank Philippine STAR’s Millette Mananquil for her research on RA 7279.

In 1992, RA 7279 provided for “a comprehensive and continuing urban development and housing program.” The law required that within two years, local governments, in coordination with the National Housing Authority (NHA), should implement the relocation and resettlement of persons living in danger areas such as esteros, railroad tracks, garbage dumps, riverbanks, shorelines, waterways, and other public places such as sidewalks, roads, parks, and playgrounds.”

In 1997, Congress passed RA 8368 decriminalizing squatting, but specifically states that it does not nullify provisions of RA 7279 against professional squatters and squatting syndicates. This refers to individuals or groups with sufficient income for legitimate housing or those who have received housing units from the government but who sold, leased or transferred the units and returned to squatting.

RA 8368 also reiterates that professional squatting carries a penalty of up to six years in prison and fines ranging from P60,000 to P100,000. It remained that “a public official who tolerates or abets the commission of professional squatting in the specified places shall be dealt with in accordance with the law.”

How many local government officials have been made liable for allowing these? How many “professional squatters” have been tried in court?

Election will be held in May 2010. It is imperative to elect congressmen, governors and mayors who have track records, as well as sincere and responsible governance.

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