… Manuel (Mar) Roxas III, being groomed by Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino as the next president of the philippines, explained that nothing can be fast enough in a situation like the one he is coordinating now.
By the way, Corina Sanchez of ABS CBN, has been busy in television appearances for the media set-up of a presidential campaign for his husband Mar. Roxas was in Tacloban a day before typhoon Yolanda landed in Guiuan, Leyte.
But what kind of preparation did Mar for a tragedy like Yolanda? and his boss, Benigno Simeon?
The two, who are educated economists, knew that bottled fluorinated water supply, for example, is brought to the social welfare warehouse, presumably for accounting and preliminary storage then to the community supposedly.
Disaster preparedness just because a president of the republic was right there in the area of calamity? Aquino is the president so he is the government, and what he says, whether right or wrong, is always right?
The government of the people, by the people and for the people is only Aquino-Cojuangco for now.
Sadly, this is the state of governance since Magdalo republic was conceptualized from the time of Emilio Aguinaldo and Manuel Quezon right after the death of Magdiwang.
Stevens and Anderson, veterans to many disaster areas, cannot comprehend why relief goods are not handed directly to the people. Relief goods do not belong to warehouse. They need to be given to the people without delay.
In the Philippines, distribution of urgent relief goods and even poisons have to pass through a maze of bureaucracy and political grandstanding.
This bureaucratic distribution has something to do government officials’ penchant for grandstanding just to garner brownie points from the voters.
Gusto ba talaga ng mga taong gobyerno na ang mga international relief goods or cash donations ay magdaan sa kanilang sistema upang maisama ang mga ito sa kanilang mga sariling pork fund?
At sigurado, hahanapan pa ng voter’s ID ang mga biktimang kawawa bago nila bigyan ng relief goods. Ito ba talaga ang kanilang modus operandi?
In the aftermath of typhoon Sendong in Cagayan de Oro in 2011, a typhoon that claimed over a thousand lives, there was a rumor going around that presidential sister Kris Aquino caused the delay of the distribution of relief goods.
Kris is preparing for her entry to philippine politics, no doubt. Isn’t it true?
Some even say that the social welfare department of this government does have this tradition of holding on to relief goods for far too long in the past, which eventually results in relief goods not being given at all to the intended recipients.
Is this tradition factual? Kayo ang sumagot!
Many devastating typhoons have affected the Philippines for many years, and the deadly hurricane that devastated Leyte is only one of the front page reminders.
These furious storms had wreaked havoc on the country many times in the past, and still continue to do so today and tomorrow, so there is nothing new.
Take Tropical Storm Uring that hit the Philippines in November 1991. It reportedly left 5,101 casualties, the highest number out of all recorded typhoon disasters in the last few decades.
Typhoon Undang that hit the country in 1984, brought about a storm surge in Basey, Samar, and killed a total of 895 people.
Typhoon Reming, reportedly the strongest typhoon to ever hit the Philippines in the last few decades (maximum gustiness of 320 kph), led to 709 deaths and P10.89 billion worth of damage in 2006.
Last but not the least, in 2012, Typhoon Pablo, the strongest storm to hit Mindanao, cost P36.949 billion in damage.
Madaling makalimot ang mga tao. Nagkaroon na tayo ng Frank, nagkaroon na tayo ng Reming, ng Sendong, ng Pablo. Last year lang yung Pablo. May pag-asa pa ba tayo sa mga kuwento ng PAG-ASA?
The throwback hurricane that reached Leyte on October 12, 1897, and striking Tacloban, the capital, with terrific force, reduced it to ruins in less than half an hour.
The bodies of 120 europeans have been recovered from the fallen buildings. Four hundred natives were buried in the ruins. A report said this happened more than a century ago.
A town called Hermin was “swept away by flood” rendering 5,000 inhabitants missing. A small station called Weera, near Loog, was also reported gone. Only three houses were reported to be left standing in Loog itself.
Thousands of natives are roaming about the devastated province seeking food and medical attendance. In many cases the corpses were mutilated as though they had fallen in battle, and the expressions of their faces were most agonizing.”
History and natural disasters repeat themselves. The only thing that hopefully changes is our level of technological adaptability, enabling us to better prepare, soften their damage, and deal with their fury overall.
But, have we really changed?
And even the richest of the greatest nations cannot do anything about it, unless, they can change, weaken or reinforce the climate itself.
Or can they actually create storms and tsunamis any time of the day and night according to their whims and caprice?
Last but not the least, one of the worst man-made disasters and misfortunes yesterday and today is the repeat of elections for the so-called traditional politicians into power down to barangay level, to perpetuate their type of governance for our own tomorrow.
Two days before one of the world’s most powerful typhoons rammed into the Philippines, President Benigno Aquino had a simple but ambitious target for all government agencies: zero casualties.
Fast-forward a week: thousands are dead, anger is growing over the slow relief effort and Aquino’s once-unassailable popularity is under threat – along with the reforms that have helped transform the Philippines into one of Asia’s fastest-growing and hottest emerging economies.
Aquino faces could never define or even undermine his presidency in the wake of Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan), whose 313 km per hour (195 mph) winds and tsunami-like wall of water turned coastal regions into corpse-strewn wastelands.
The 53-year-old heir to a political dynasty appears to have been caught off guard by the magnitude of the devastation and has struggled to quell the growing frustration among survivors.
His TV appearances, including once from the city of Tacloban huddling with local officials and again at the Malacanang presidential palace to announce a national calamity, shall always be the materials for the yellow propaganda. Other media appearances, from both Manila and the affected areas, which pictured his bad profiles shall be kept away from the eyes of his subalterns.
Casiple once said that Aquino should have grasped the enormity of the crisis political and electoral reforms in Manila”. If nothing happens in the next week or so, and the rehabilitation goes haywire, he will have a big political problem.
Aquino spokesman Herminio Coloma, a demolition control specialist, defended the president’s performance by saying that criticism of the government was understandable.
Coloma added that the President had avoided visits to the hardest-hit areas so that stretched local government officials were not distracted from relief work.
Coloma’s knack in weaving words public consumption like “we do not deny that there may have been shortcomings but that is borne out of severe constraints … the severity and magnitude of this disaster are unprecedented and unparalleled in our previous experience …” deserves him more pork from Aquino.
On Sunday, while in Tacloban, Aquino refused to believe reports that the city of 220,000 people was 95 percent devastated, with looting in some parts, according to an official who was there when the president met local authorities.
Aquino had the temerity to complain that disaster officials were giving him conflicting reports, with no reliable information after the typhoon brought down telephone and power lines, said one source.
One TV network quoted Aquino as telling the head of the disaster agency he was running out of patience. Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said Aquino was just “discouraged” with the incomplete data he was getting.
Compounding Aquino’s problems is the slow delivery of aid. For the first six days, the government distributed only 50,000 “food packs” containing 6 kg (13 lb) of rice and canned goods each day, covering just 3 percent of the 1.73 million families affected, according to government figures.
Who is in charge here? Local media have questioned Aquino’s leadership in a news headline. The very same question to her mother, Corazon Cojuangco Aquino, during her accidental term of office.
The stakes are high for Aquino – and for the Philippines, whose economy would have been robust in Asia this year. After winning in May elections, Aquino plans to attract more investment and that means more pork for his government.
Since he took office on July 1, 2010, the benchmark stock index has surged nearly 90 percent and foreign direct investment has more than doubled, or at least, on paper.
But Filipino frustration, on the streets of Tacloban and in social media, could change the course of his single six-year term that ends in 2016.
With the military at the forefront of recovery and relief operations, and government agencies struggling to deliver basic services, Aquino’s support base could weaken, something governments before him have endured at their peril.
Two Philippine leaders have been ousted in the last three decades, while the previous government of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo faced several coup attempts in her troubled nine-year rule.
Political analysts say Aquino’s ratings will likely suffer in the next opinion polls, especially in the typhoon-swept central Philippine provinces that have been bastions of support.
Across the central Philippines, desperate families appear regularly on TV news programs, often in tears, some holding signs reading “Help us” or “We need food” amidst the government poor enforcement of evacuation to quell the record-breaking winds and surge of seawater
Aquino has defended the government’s preparations, saying the death toll might have been higher had it not been for the evacuation of people and the readying of relief supplies. The toll itself has been a point of contention by stating that the number of deaths may have been overstated caused only by emotional trauma.
One regional police chief named Soria who gave a somewhat factual estimate to media, was removed from his post by an aquino cabinet named mar roxas. Aquino is trying to exonerate himself from what he said earlier: ‘zero casualties.'”
At one point last year, Aquino, the only son of democracy icon and former president Corazon Aquino, enjoyed a 74 percent approval rating. Then a scandal over lawmakers’ misuse of public funds erupted, threatening to undermine the platform that got Aquino into office – curbing corruption.
A whistleblower revealed in July that some lawmakers, including the president’s allies, were stealing up to half the money being allocated to local projects from discretionary government funds, as what actually happened during the term of his mother, Cory. when sequestered assets from Marcos were transferred to her aquino-cojuanco cronies.
Aquino has since been accused of failing to convincingly tackle a culture of political patronage. His popularity rating sank to 49 percent in September despite the fact that main bulk of the pork money is entirely in his hands. So, he needs to strengthen yellow propaganda of demolition and damage control.
The challenge now for Aquino, a week after Typhoon Haiyan, is to speed up the flow of aid and rebuild the confidence of a nation shattered by one of its worst natural disasters.
kanya-kanyang propaganda ang bawat estasyon ng tv at radio, pati na gobyerno ni aquino, halos sabayan sila sa pagbroadcast at pagpapakita ng kanilang mga ginawa para sa mga nasalanta ng bagyong si yolanda … na lim napo tayong lahat na mga subalterns ng mga aquino-cojuangco …
pero hindi nila makitakita ang totoong kakulangan, sa kabila ng limpak-limpak na relief goods na ibinabandila sa mga diyaryo’t telebisyon na para bang nagsasabing wala ng masyadong problema ang mga biktima dahil sa kanilang mga relief goods na tatagal lamang ng mga ilang kainan at inuman …
samantalang ang trahedya’t kalamidad patuloy pa at bibilang pa ng mga linggo at buwan …
si dinky naman, nagsabe sa tv na ang baranggay chairman ay dapat magpunta sa kanya para makakuha ng mga relief goods para sa mga biktima, dinugtungan pa na ang mga tao ay maggrupo at magpunta rin sa kanya pero kelangan may certification kung mga taga saan sila para mabigyan ng relief goods ….
pero, saan sila kukuha ng sasakyan, at baket kelangan pa ng certification, baket? baket? … ha? ha? ha? ha!?! …
kelangan ni dinky ng mga sundalo’t bodyguards para bantayan siya kasama ang mga relief goods, baka kase nakawin o pilit kunin ang mga iyan ng mga biktimang gutom, sugatan at sakbibi pa ng kasalukuyang trahedya …
After a disaster, planes and helicopters can arrive in 24 to 48 hours after the storm clears, massive deliveries can only arrive by ship, which can take several days to sail longer if they have to sail around a massive storm.
Families digging out from the storm, stockpiles of food and water will have been washed away or shared and people might forage in damaged buildings.
Of course, we know. We know that the fact that in this small country of ours, politicizing is very rampant and the politicians take every calamity as a chance to improve their political plans.
And we are aware that scaremongering, catastrophizing and politicizing are three different words, and we are also very conscious of the fact that propaganda is a very good source of income in philippine media.
Politicians get richer while the poor gets poorer or dead … and this is the reality!
Typhoon victims in Samar and Leyte are being prioritized by marbnoy to get the necessary help from the national government to insure votes in the coming election.
Common sense dictates that calamity victims in the islands of mindoro, busuanga, coron, culion, romblon, marinduque, masbate, dinagat and other nearby islands in souther tagalog probably did not vote Aquino and Roxas to office, so they will have wait for relief forever.
Mas maswerte talaga ang mga hiligaynon, sugbuhanon at waray na taga samar, leyte, cebu, panay at negros dahil bisaya si roxas para mamigay ng relief na hindi naman galing sa kanyang bulsa, pero ang ibang mga katutubong biktima na hindi bisaya pero biktima din, ay patuloy na nakanganga.
Salamat kay yolanda, nagkadahilan si bnoy na huwag bumitaw sa pondong pork sa bulsa niya. Kelangang idisiplina nya ang pamimigay ng relief goods galing sa ibang bansa para sila mismo ni mar ang mamigay nito.
Ebidensiya nga naman ang photo-op dahil dumating na ang campaign season para sa kanila. Malamang-lamang, aspartame at fluoride na lamang ang ipamudmod …
Heto pa po ang matinde … ang HAARP daw sa alaska, na isang research facility ng mga makapangyarihang bansa, na origin ng mga mystery at deception na dulot diumano ng mga powerful radar waves and frequency, ang siyang kumokontrol ng weather ng buong mundo …
alam daw nito kung pano imodify ang weather para magkaroon ng extreme atmospheric events sa mga karagatan at kabundukan na siyang dahilan kung bakit merong mga man-made global warming due to alteration of weather ….
Naganap na daw po ito sa nakalipas na vietnam war at sa katrina hurricane sa bahamas na ginamitan daw ng mechanism of weather warfare …
Hindi kaya itong si yolanda ay sadyang pinalakas ng microwave pulse, conspiracy theory na naman bato at hindi ba totoo na merong HAARP? … alam din daw ito ng mga intsek kaya pakitang-tao lamang ang tulong nila sa pilipinas …
me alam kaya sina mar at bnoy? … heheheh! bahala sila! sana dahan-dahan din silang magdusa sa cramps, vertigo, dizziness, headaches, tinnitus, joint pain, unexplainable depression, anxiety attack, slurred speech, blurred vision at memory loss.
Hala, ipamigay na lang ninyo ng libre ang asukal na nutra sweet, equal o spoonful para magkaroon sila ng epidemya ng multiple sclerosis and systemic lupus … at magamit ang mga ito na demolition control o kapit-bisig laban sa paninira daw sa kanila.
Tagos sa puso ang pamumulitika ng dibdib ng presidential system ng republikang gobyerno ng flip-pinas.
Bilang patunay, pakinggan nyong mabuti kung pano nila kantahin ang lupang hinirang daw … “ang mamatay ng dahil sa bayang magiliw ng “dagatat” … huhuhu! …
dios koday!, dugay ka na diri, tonto kagiyapon! ….
parasapinga 