Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Mar Roxas and the Yolanda fiasco: No One Will Ever Be Good Enough

One of the most undesirable traits we have as humans is our inability to be contented. The insatiable desires of something better, something more, and something fancier are the inevitable characteristics we can never let go of.





Tōhoku earthquake
which happened last March 11, 2011 in the pacific coast of Tohoku recorded a magnitude of 9.0. The earthquake which is referred to as the Great East Japan earthquake was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded to hit Japan. The tsunami caused nuclear accidents, particularly the meltdowns at several reactors in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear power Plant complex. Incidentally, this is the second worst nuclear disaster after the Chernobyl Incident. With approximately 20,000 deaths, 6,000 injured and 2,500 missing, it was one of Japan’s greatest challenges in the modern century.

            Naturally, in the spirit of compassion and camaraderie, Japan witnessed an influx on international aid. Volunteer workers flew from all over the world to help in the aftermath. Thousands of military, social personnel were dispatched to aid in the recovery and rebuilding. But the most remarkable thing about the incident, perhaps you might want to call it the silver lining, is the resiliency that Japanese people showed.
           
            Upon the incident, central government dispatched local authorities to contain the disaster. People were evacuated, some were quarantined, bodies were buried and medical aid distributed and made available. With the help of the government and the attitude of the affected locals, they were, albeit slowly, able to rebuild and restart their lives again.


           
            Now, you might be wondering, what is the point of this article? The Filipinos also suffered a similar catastrophic disaster – the super typhoon Yolanda.  Approximately 6,200 died, about 29,000 were injured and almost 2,000 missing.  3.5M families, 9 regions, 44 provinces and 12, 100 barangays were affected. Data came from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) as of January 2014.

            Unlike the situation that the Japanese were caught in however, the Filipinos who were similarly caught in a natural disaster responded otherwise. Obviously, they are two different races and thus have different values and outlooks. Naturally, the situation was handled far differently.



            I have watched an interview of presidential candidate Mar Roxas with CNN’s Andrew Stevens. In the interview, there is the growing anger about the government response, lack thereof to the calamity that struck the region. Mar Roxas, being the head of the Department of the Interior and Local Government that time was the recipient of wrath and frustration from local and national residents who are not satisfied with his leadership. In the interview, Mr. Roxas was put in the spot.  

            He however said that the entire force of government is looking after people, all forces whether physical or not were deployed and mobilized and that the need was beyond anticipated and finally, that they are doubling the response and supplies distributed everyday. The reporter criticized Mr. Roxas on a seemingly lack of coordination for immediate response in crisis like what is at hand. With calm and no resignation, he replied that which is true - local government is the first responder and what happened was even the local government units were swept away with the intensity of the typhoon.


            During the interview, he explained the allocation of the scarce resources, trucks, in order to meet the needs of the people immediately. With only 20 trucks that time, 10 trucks were allocated for food delivery, 5 trucks concentrated on clearing the street for trees and debris and the other 5 trucks were dispatched for cadaver recovery. Though several trucks were received for deployment from the private sectors after the interview, what was commendable was Mr. Roxas’ capacity to stand on his ground, exude grace under pressure and make efficient allocation of the minimal resources they have at the time.

           
From the point of view of a viewer, it is indeed overwhelming. Not even weather and atmospheric organizations with the latest and high tech machineries can anticipate the massive destruction that super typhoon Yolanda had brought. Even with proper preparation, it will never be good enough.

 Perhaps, one of the most difficult tasks to do is matching the help that came in with the help that is needed. There is no intention to criticize the respected Andrew Stevens, however, from Mr. Roxas’ side, it is indeed true that proper matching is crucial to meet the overwhelming demands of the victims. With the enormous help, donations from all over the world, both in cash and in kind, it is difficult to foresee where to allocate these, considering that the local government of Tacloban itself was wiped out. Thus it took more that the desired response time to mobilize the people from the most affected parts to the fringes of the regions. With aids and volunteers unfamiliar with the territory, and few or almost no local units to assist them (as even the local government officials were looking for their families and loved ones), response time would definitely suffer.      

            Also, unlike Japan, the country’s level of development is not at yet at par. Their methods, techniques, machines and capacity to overcome such a tremendous calamity is extremely enviable and admirable. People might have expected that just like Japan, the disaster that occurred back then was handled with ease and efficiency. But we are still far from that level of advancement. Until then, we still have tons to learn and capacities to tap and develop. Until then, we will strive to be just like them.

            This is not a matter of finger pointing or mud slinging. It has been two years since the tragedy occurred but a lot of controversies and hearsays still linger. Filipinos viewers from local and international were inexhaustible of opinions, while international spectators were easy to criticize the current government.  But can we too, just like Japan, be resilient? The commendable manner in which they handled the tragedy was what we should be aiming for. Instead of blaming on who underperformed and what went wrong, can we focus on what we can do better? Instead of concentrating on what they did during the Fukushima tragedy, can we also make our views wider and focus on what they did after the calamity struck – containment, rehabilitation and prevention.


           


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