By Belarmino Dabalos Saguing
Rome, Italy 10/11/2013
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| A general shot shows fallen trees and destroyed houses in the aftermath of Super Typhoon Haiyan in Tacloban, eastern island of Leyte on November 9, 2013. One of the strongest typhoons on record killed more than 100 people as savage winds and giant waves flattened communities across the Philippines, authorities said on November 9 while corpses lay amid the devastation. (Noel Celis/AFP/Getty Images) |
At times of a national
calamity, the people are looking upon a leader who will guide them through
recovery and reconstruction, not from a president who will put the blame to
someone or something else if things got
bad.
Philippine
authorities had expressed confidence on Friday that only a few people had been killed,
citing two days of intense preparation efforts led by President Benigno Aquino.
But things went
haywire in the parts where the storm made its first landfall. More than a
thousand were killed.
Aquino said on
Saturday night it appeared some communities had not heeded the warnings.
“I hesitate to say this, but it seems that Tacloban was not that prepared, shall we say, compared with other areas,” he told reporters in Manila.
It will be very interesting
if this was uttered in lapsus, or it was just that the president has the habit
of putting the blame on someone when things does not go according to his
wishes.
It is clear that the
country has prepared for the coming of a typhoon, but surely, not even this was
enough to prevent the unexpected. The country has sustained the onslaught of a
storm of class 5 hurricane. The Philippines is on the natural path of storms
and typhoons in past. But all the past atmospheric disturbances has nothing to
compare with the monster storm that lashed the country this time. The president
putting the blame on the victims themselves demonstrated his callousness.
But let us be reminded
that we cannot blame nature on the tragedies it has caused. Since storms are a
natural phenomena, no human planning could control it. Let us put an end to
blames. Something went wrong. People died and properties are wrecked, but it
was not nature’s fault, nor it is the people who are to blame because they died.
Now,, Mr. President, who’s
next to blame because a storm has wrecked your plans, surely not your predecessor?
At this point, the people
including the farflung OFWs themselves are mobilizing to aid the victims. That’s
gerat! But what little the people could afford to help will not be enough for the
giant reconstructions that is coming. This reconstruction will need vast amount of money. The government has no
reason to say there are no funds.
The funds are there in
form of the President’s DAPand the Congressmen’s PDAF, and that is no mean
amount. It must be funneled into this reconstructions.
But mind you, dear honorables! The people do not want to hear
that you are contributing your hoarded pork barrel to buy the votes of the
people! We do not want you to use it to beautify yourselves! The country want
that money back and it must be given back to the people in this reconstruction
of the heavily devastated areas! And it must not be distributed to false NGOs
who will just nominate crooked construction companies to build low quality projects
like roads without steel reinforcement that leads to nowhere or structure made
of low quality concrete!
Now, let us talk of
rebuilding the country and the nation, Mr. President.
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