Reflections of a Typhoon Yolanda Survivor (Part II)

Immediately after Yolanda effectively destroyed Tacloban, the Philippine national government was essentially absent. The local government was as destroyed as the city it was tasked to govern. For one, the city mayor, Alfred Romualdez and his family barely survived the onslaught of the tsunami-like storm surge, indeed, he and his family were holed up right beside the properties they owned - by the sea! 

It is clear that even the city mayor did not know of the impending storm surge, much less the ordinary populace of Tacloban. The absence of a strong national government presence ensured that the looting, rape and murder that would follow Yolanda will terrorize the survivors of Yolanda, not only in Tacloban City, but even in the surrounding municipalities equally ravaged by the supertyphoon such as Tanauan and Palo. 

On November 9, the day after Yolanda, I went to the city hall of Tacloban to get any food they could give. I was told that the relief food would be coursed through the barangay. At that time, it seemed a good idea. Boy how wrong I could be - for as is usual in the Philippines, corruption on a massive, really scandalous scale would hound the relief distribution process.

For one, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), supposedly the government arm to take a lead in the distribution of relief efforts, was 'repackaging' aid given from foreign nations, such that imported canned goods were surreptitiously replaced with local made sardines, sardines that in some cases were damaged that the labels were torn, the cans were deformed - among others.

Then came the role of the barangay captains, some of whom also 'repackaged' the relief goods entrusted to them for distribution such that 5 kilos of rice were distributed after deducting two kilos, worse, some barangay captains chose for whom the relief goods were given, even worse, other barangay captains refused to coordinate with NGO's for the distribution of aid within their jurisdictions.

It is ironic that during elections, candidates always to seem to have a complete listing of eligible voters, their addresses and even ages - people whose votes need to be bought are not a problem. After Yolanda, everyone who wants to get help will have to muster all the stops just to be listed and hence, to be able to get the chance of getting relief goods. 

Immediately after Yolanda, strife was what would best describe Tacloban, law and order broke down as massive looting, rapes and even murders were committed at an alarmingly unchecked manner. Politics played, as it has always been played in the Philippines, in the effort to help the survivors. Videos abound showing the meeting between DILG Secretary Mar Roxas and Tacloban City Mayor Alfred Romualdez whereby the former clearly telling the latter that "...the President is an Aquino and that you are a Romualdez..."

That statement, in retrospect, was how the national government's sclerotic response to the aftermath of Yolanda can best be explained. Politics not only worsened the plight of the survivors, it clearly shows that politics in no uncertain terms is what is killing this nation and effectively impoverishes the vast majority of the Filipino people as patronage politics excludes the public interest in favor of vested interests.

In my barangay, the situation was actually worse, since the election the previous October 28, our then outgoing barangay captain lost, the barangay captain elect was due to resume office only by December 1, and so from November 9 up to the end of the month, the out-going barangay captain would still hold office, and boy did she use politics to give help, having lost in our area (Area 1, since our barangay is relatively bi there are three areas for purposes of grouping), no aid was really distributed in our place for the whole of November. 

It seems that the out-going captain prioritized her area (Area 2, where she lives). Apparently, she used the remaining days of her office to ensure that her political supporters were taken cared off before she finally leaves power. That, to the detriment of the other constituents of the barangay, who had to use whatever means they have at their disposal to ensure for themselves enough relief to sustain them and their families. 

Chaos, corruption and inefficiency was what characterized the relief distribution process. Really, the entire thing was nothing but an exercise in political ineptness, blatant corruption and clearly the failure of the citizens to choose leaders who have the balls, the brains and the sincerity to actually serve. This is the price we paid for bought elections. Elections peopled by candidates who shelled money to win and pretended to serve, and the people who enabled them by demanding to be bought and pretending to choose.

Really, I cannot blame the politics engendered by a citizenry with myopic views of what suffrage is all about and what democracy truly entails, prudence in our choices and discipline in our actions. 

The ensuing tragedy in the aftermath of Yolanda was for me the greater tragedy for it showed that the Filipino people as a whole and the victims of Yolanda in particular have a long way to go in order to finally stamp out the scourge of bureaucratic paralysis that seems to characterize not only disaster planning and response in the Philippines but even more so, everyday governance in one of the poorest regions of one of the poorest countries in the world. 

Unless the nation wakes up from the slumber of national governance, Yolanda will repeat itself. As the great George Santayana once said, "Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it."