stark contrast

January 7th, 12:30am January 7th, 12:06am TEBArticles

Destructive politics has been the greatest evil habit of the previous regime that resulted in great disservice to many Filipinos, particularly those suffering from the effects of frequent calamities.

“Emergency situations, thus, bring out the best or the worst of elected leaders.

When typhoon “Yolanda” devastated Leyte and other parts of the Visayas in 2013, the news story that stood out was of Liberal Party (LP) kingpin Mar Roxas telling Tacloban City Mayor Alfred Romualdez, “You’re a Romualdez and the President is an Aquino.”

That set the tone for the difficulties the province faced in securing help from the national government and grudgingly the rehabilitation efforts afterwards.

Two years after, Mar and former President Noynoy Aquino continued to inject politics into the tragedy as they kept themselves off the commemoration event.

Local officials described the flow of central government’s assistance, despite the abundance of foreign aid and relief goods, as being “very little, very late.”

President Rody Duterte sought a rectification under his term when he committed P43 billion immediately to the Bicol region apparently to make it the pilot area for the building of permanent evacuation centers and housing units.

Duterte had long envisioned such durable structures to reduce the effect of natural disasters on the population, primarily the students who are displaced whenever public schools are converted into evacuation centers.

The Bicol region would be the most unlikely place to start a legacy project if the administration was as vindictive as that of the past, since it is the bailiwick of the harshest critics of Rody who are Vice President Leni Robredo, detained Sen. Leila de Lima and Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV.

The main consideration of Rody was that the Bicol region frequently gets the hardest blows from nature.

Rody said the evacuation facilities would have to be made of concrete. “I would not be satisfied with wood structures. They will be the first to go if the winds come. This is quite a novelty of recent time because there are no winds, just purely rainfall,” he said.

In contrast, Noynoy’s administration was in a perpetual blame game and whitewashing effort on the “Yolanda” tragedy up to the end of his term.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, in the aftermath of the catastrophe, stopped its mortality count at 6,000 on orders of Noynoy.

Former rehabilitation czar Panfilo Lacson, for instance, was confronted with questions on the grudgingly slow rehabilitation process in the provinces devastated by typhoon “Yolanda.”

In turn, he blamed the lack of assistance from the administration of Noynoy in the rebuilding process.

“Rehabilitation funds were farmed out as if these were LP property with Roxas distributing most of the money.

Rehabilitation funds were farmed out as if these were LP property with Roxas distributing most of the money while LP strategist Budget Secretary Butch Abad releasing funds to mostly yellow political allies.

Four months after the killer typhoon hit, rotting piles of relief goods were reported in the disaster areas that to many was inconceivable considering the desperate condition of the survivors who depended mostly on government assistance.

Then Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman tried to deflect the criticisms over the spoiled relief goods in Palo, Leyte by blaming local government officials, as she claimed the goods were directly donated to the local government of Leyte which did not pass through the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

The claim, however, was hard to reconcile with the strict procedures employed on foreign material aid, some of which were held up at the ports for tax purposes.

More than P1 billion in relief funds were also found idle in the bank accounts of the Office of Civil Defense of the Department of National Defense earning interests, instead of being employed for the benefit of the typhoon victims.

Allegations of bias also abounded as disaster-stricken areas led by LP members or allies have relief overflows, while in most parts of the Visayas region, victims fended for themselves.

Emergency situations, thus, bring out the best or the worst of elected leaders.

The “Yolanda” tragedy perfectly defined the utter callousness and incompetence of the administration of Noynoy.