Catastrophe

Over 50 nations – Ukraine included – are mobilizing their crack search-and-rescue teams for deployment in southern Turkey and northern Syria to help in the frantic effort to save lives. The Philippines is deploying an 87-man team of rescuers and medical workers.

As of Wednesday morning, the casualty toll in the quake-hit area is pushing towards 8,000 with tens of thousands injured. The 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit southern Turkey along the fault line where the Arabian plate pushes against the Asian landmass. A quake of such devastating power is explainable.

The quake could not have chosen a worse area to hit. Southern Turkey is the country’s most impoverished region. Northern Syria, for its part, is an area devastated by ten years of war. The affected communities are located in what has been rebel-held territory, including the historic city of Aleppo. These communities have sustained much damage because of the civil war.

In the two countries, millions of people are directly affected. The Turkish government estimates that about a thousand structures were demolished or seriously damaged.

The quake could not have chosen a worse time. At night, temperatures drop to freezing. Snow storms sweep the affected areas. Rains threaten to make the rescue effort even more miserable.

Understandably, a catastrophe of this magnitude overwhelms the capacity of both the Turkish and Syrian governments to deliver humanitarian assistance. Without urgent international aid, those trapped in collapsed structures are condemned to certain death. Without immediate medical aid, those badly injured might be condemned to eventual death.

Such is the nature of this catastrophe that every minute matters. According to experts, beyond the first 48 hours, the chances of survival from the rubble falls to nearly nil. Every life saved beyond that margin will be considered a miracle.

The quake’s brutality has been met with untold compassion in the communities victimized by its wrath. Volunteers worked around the clock, often with only their bare hands, to clear rubble and save lives. There are compelling scenes of tragedy to be sure; but also innumerable examples of common heroism.

The community of nations responded in a timely manner.

Ukraine, again, sets an inspiring example. Despite the great challenge of rescuing its own citizens from the destruction wrought by Russian missile attacks, Kiev lost no time in announcing the deployment of dozens of well-trained rescuers. We have no word from Moscow if Russia would pause raining death on Ukrainians and begin sending assistance to Turkey. The world will remember this moment.

The Philippine response has been timely and admirable. It seems we are the only ASEAN country to commit manpower support to the rescue and relief effort in the quake-hit areas.

When we are hit by calamity, we somehow expect other countries to deliver aid. When calamities strike others, the least we can do is to offer whatever meager assistance we have on hand.

The decision to quickly dispatch Filipino rescuers to southern Turkey is a measure of the maturity and responsibility of our foreign affairs outlook. We have fully assumed a robust role in the community of nations.We have begun to fully understand that cooperation is a two-way street.

The navel-gazing parochial streak in Filipino public opinion appears to be dissipating. In the past, we might have heard voices protesting our government fulfilling its international responsibilities. Leftist groups might have taken to the streets protesting our government sending out aid to others, protesting that our poor need these as well.

Parochialism is dissipating but not dead. We saw some of it when mouthpieces of the tiny Makabayan bloc protested plans to reimburse VAT for items tourists bought, saying our people need VAT relief more. The same group protests concessions we gave under EDCA that allows the US more places to forward-deploy their war materiel in our military bases, claiming this exposes us to risks of war. They gloss over the fact that our military alliance under the Mutual Defense Treaty requires sharing of risks.

The Filipino Left elevated navel-gazing into ideology.

Food inflation

Our inflation rate rose to 8.7 percent in January, slightly higher than forecast. We had expected our inflation rate to gradually recede from the start of this year. That did not happen.

Among the items that are keeping the inflation rate high are food prices along with a spike in housing rentals. Over the past few months, we have seen spectacular spikes in several food items such as sugar and onions. The trend now infects the prices of other food items such as eggs and even garlic.

Because of sharply higher prices for key food items, our consumers have become food insecure. Our core inflation rate remains elevated, posting a sharp 7.4 percent rise year-on-year, according to the think-tank Global Source. That militates against substantial relief from elevated inflation in the near term.

Elevated inflation persists despite government’s extension of tariff rates for swine meat, corn, rice and coal. It persists despite government’s decision to import rice and onions to reduce speculative pricing in the market. Since whatever reforms are forthcoming in our agriculture will take some time, a key factor driving up the inflation rate will persist for some time.

There is a rather naive bill filed at the House of Representatives compelling enterprises to encourage productivity. Enterprises do that as a matter of course with or without a law compelling them to do so. What we need is to rapidly improve our logistics.