Super Typhoon Haiyan - Expected Nov8-9

[R_sQuArEd]

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[kit_cebu]

I will never forget that day. Aside from the typhoon that swept over our country, that was the day that my father passsed away

condolence bai...

[kageron]

Yolanda death toll feared to hit 7,000 | News | GMA News Online


election list and basihan kung kinsay tagaan loslosa
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=679091828775516

[Sand Man]

election list and basihan kung kinsay tagaan loslosa
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=679091828775516

Sus gipang-atay lang nang mga yawa na mayor na. Nagbukal akong dugo naminaw ani.

Makaulaw!

[Sand Man]

I'd like to share this.... Really voices out my frustrations with our "elected" leaders, as well.

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There is, indeed, a time and a season for everything. For acting swiftly and decisively in the face of an emergency, for burying the dead and finding the missing. That time has passed. Now is the time for helping the living rebuild their futures, for confronting failures and wrongdoing, for taking part in change. All at once. One cannot be done without the others.

I say this from where I sit, worrying about loved ones, begging for help from friends and strangers, and absorbing grim news about how a storm ravaged the homeland and laid bare the pathetic irrelevance of its leaders. The information I have received is incomplete, cobbled together from the media and from accounts of friends on the ground, but it is enough. Enough for me to make judgments, enough for me to clarify where my sympathies lie and where I should direct my energies and my anger.

The last two weeks, and the months before these when we grappled with the enormity of plunder and patronage, have shown us beyond doubt how broken our systems and institutions are and how unreliable, inadequate, short sighted, self-interested and incorrigible our leaders can be.

We learned in detail how our elected representatives had been robbing us and how wrong it is to let their interests and whims dictate how public money should be spent.

We feel the depravity of this system more acutely now that we scrounge around for resources to deal with the devastation of Yolanda. If in the past, various administrations were able to excuse themselves by pleading lack of funds, we can’t and won’t buy that now. There IS money. Billions of it. The question is whose pockets it lines and how the rest of it is dispensed and accounted for.

We also saw—however much we want to trust a government struggling with the terrible legacy of the past —how misplaced that trust is.

There was President Aquino refusing to declare a state of national emergency and blaming some local governments for being “unprepared.” Local governments whose personnel were either dead, dispossessed, injured, grieving or isolated. Then it was the Tacloban mayor’s turn to defend his administration’s preparedness—after having waited out the storm at his beachfront mansion.

To tell you the truth, I wanted to drown them together in a storm surge of their own spit.

There was Secretary Mar Roxas insisting during an interview that the uncollected corpses along Tacloban’s streets were different from the ones the journalist had seen over the last 6 days since the storm hit. All this while survivors scavenged for food as tons of donated meals sat in warehouses, and slept among the dead who had lain in the streets for nearly a week.

Meanwhile, the Vice President—in a relief effort separate from those of the administration in which he is second in command—was distributing relief goods with the OVP’s seal on it. Congress agonized over which bit of the budget to cut and reallocate for reconstruction efforts. But PDAF had just been ruled unconstitutional and so the halls of Batasan were nearly empty the next day.

Even the death toll was muddled as attempts to halt the official count surfaced. To save face, to suppress the truth, to minimize tragedy? I don’t know or understand. Eventually it emerged that there was no single individual in charge of the national relief effort; they were employing a “consultative process” to deal with the crisis.

Yes, the typhoon’s strength was unprecedented. Yes, its impact was far worse than anticipated. Yes, some local governments fell apart and were not able to perform their duties. Yes, social workers, soldiers and civil servants are breaking their backs coping with the situation.

Wall of pettiness, ineptitude

What I don’t accept or comprehend are the excuses of top decision-makers about how their hands were tied, how impassable roads and toppled communication networks were preventing aid from reaching the living. Because I know a group of civilians who were able to pool resources, coordinate with local contacts, hire a helicopter, and do air drops into Antique. I know of another group that got relief goods into remote towns in Capiz. I have heard of the legions of volunteers that sprang into action at Villamor Airbase to welcome and care for evacuees (only to be told that the entire operations were being moved to Camp Aguinaldo and back again). I have learned of the “informal supply chain” that gets food to those who need it most.

How is the national government, with billions of emergency funds on hand, the legal mandate to step in during emergencies, expert and experienced staff, not able to perform these crucial services and marshal abundant domestic and international assistance?

Is it unreasonable to expect that the authorities commandeer ships, choppers, planes and amphibian vehicles, re-deploy police and military personnel, and adjust protocol during a crisis of this magnitude? To expect them to stop jockeying for turf, set animosities and rivalries aside, suspend their fixation with rank and procedure, suppress their appetite for credit-grabbing and media exposure? Just for a couple of weeks after this calamity. Just a couple of weeks. Parang awa niyo na.

“Ordinary” citizens mobilized, gritted their teeth and carried on—we expect the same from our leaders. Just as we manifested our outrage against corruption and thievery, we have been galvanized by the grief and loss of our countrymen. Yet even as we tap into our collective compassion, zeal and resourcefulness, we come up against a wall of pettiness, ineptitude, self-interest and warped priorities.

We cannot go on like this. It simply is untenable. We can donate what little we have, we can pack relief goods until we ache, we can build houses for the survivors but in the end, we need to speak to power.

I have heard admonitions for “negative” and “critical” people such as myself to quit being know-it-alls, to stop scoring points for the opposition, to “shut up and just help.”

I’m sorry, you are mistaken. I’m sure that many volunteers who give generously of their time and resources don’t give a damn about the “opposition,” they know what role they play in this catastrophe, too. I’m no disaster management specialist but I’m not speaking out of my ass, either—most Filipinos have lived through many calamities and been in crisis situations where being quick, flexible and inventive is a requirement or else people perish.

No to silence

And this is one instance where shutting up does NOT help. No lives are ever saved by being silent or by making meek, polite pleas to our leaders whose ways and ambitions are too ossified to be moved by the suffering of their constituents.

What’s the alternative? I don’t know. What I do know is that we have no one to rely on but ourselves; that under the most desperate of circumstances, we can and will take care of each other and by doing this, we give voice to the disappointments and aspirations we share.

The only casualty of this disaster that I’m happy about is the kind of politics we detest: the politics of money and old surnames, of cacique-style “management” that brooks no criticism, of blind partisanship that prioritises pissing contests in the midst of death and devastation. We have dealt it a severe blow with the politics of stepping up, of challenging ways and systems that don’t work, of cooperating despite our differences, of protecting the most vulnerable. This, too, is unprecedented. This, for real, is doing our best.

What shape it will eventually take will be up to us. It has always been up to us. We will fend for ourselves, just as we’ve always done.

source

[krishnu shivaq silquin]

I agree with you bai... Ako jud gtry ug Paminaw ang gsulti sa ato government pero after ko naminaw sa akong mga cousins, mga classmates, ug sa mga bisita nato nga naa diri sa cebu... Kadto jud Suhito sa lugar didto.. Lahi ra jud... Lahi ang gsulti sa government ug sa mga biktima... Infact similar kaau ang gpangsulti sa mga biktima maskin lain lain ug lugar... Kontra sa government.

Na pungot ko kay ug ang government pa sultihon mura okay pero ang mga taga didto Dili...

Dili nalang ko mo share kay kinahanglan baya diri ug source ... Akong mga source kay mga biktima man... Pero kung ganahan jud mo... Try ninyo ask inyo mga kaila nga taga didto.. Dili man jud ni malimtan nga pang hitabo... Someday naa man jud mo maka.ila taga didto.. Then try to ask them kung ang real death toll nga naa sa news mo match ba sa actual... Ask them kung unsay gibuhat anang mga high ranking officials didto from 2nd to the 10th day after... Mo.olbo jud inyo kaspa kung naa....

[Sand Man]

Police official with 10,000 ‘Yolanda’ dead stats sacked
BusinessMirror - Police official with 10,000 ?Yolanda? dead stats sacked


that official by the way was just echoing the estimated report from the Leyte governor Petilla (Liberal party) as seen from this video
Typhoon Haiyan ravages Philippines city of Tacloban - YouTube

Nya karon kay nihinay-hinay na man ug duol sa estimate niya ang actual body count, so ingon dayon si Mar Roxas na i-reinstate ang police official.

Mga hanggaw jud.

[8_cRawlin_baby_8]

I've been asking sa akong mga relatives sa affected areas if nakadawat ba sila og mga donated "imported goods" but as of to this writing, wala.

kamo? nakadawat na inyong mga kaila? or naay lay area nahatagan...

how about the vans shoes? where are they now?

Operation USA warehouse manager Bruce Brinker prepares boxes of shoes for typhoon victims in Philippines, from Wilmington, California

[Andruid80]

I've been asking sa akong mga relatives sa affected areas if nakadawat ba sila og mga donated "imported goods" but as of to this writing, wala.

kamo? nakadawat na inyong mga kaila? or naay lay area nahatagan...

how about the vans shoes? where are they now?

Operation USA warehouse manager Bruce Brinker prepares boxes of shoes for typhoon victims in Philippines, from Wilmington, California

mao nani pangutana karun ug asa nani nga mga sapatos.. pastilan nalang jud...

[Sand Man]

Why am I not surprised?? mao nang di sila kamahay sa mga tawo if mura ug wa nay disiplina...

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Hoarding of relief goods probed

By Joey Gabieta
Inquirer Visayas


TACLOBAN CITY—The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) in Eastern Visayas is investigating reports that some local government officials are hoarding relief goods for victims of Supertyphoon “Yolanda” for reasons that the DILG has not made known yet.

Accused of hoarding relief goods were several mayors and officials of villages in different parts of Eastern Visayas, mostly in Leyte, according to Pedro Noval, DILG director in Eastern Visayas.

“We received reports of hoarding, involving several public officials, and we are now conducting our investigation on this issue,” Noval said.

Many villagers have aired complaints against officials hoarding relief goods but have filed no formal complaint, according to Noval.

The regional DILG director refused to identify the officials who would be covered by the investigation.

According to Noval, Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II is aware of the hoarding. He has directed the regional office of the department to conduct the investigation.

He said food packs that are given to towns, cities or villages should be distributed immediately to residents of these areas who survived Yolanda, not the day after the goods had been received.

“We cannot let our people go hungry,” Noval said.

Noval said those found guilty of hoarding relief goods would be charged in court. He said the DILG investigation would be fair and not selective.

Roxas, a leader of the ruling Liberal Party, had been accused of playing politics in the early stages of relief work for victims of Yolanda in Tacloban, a city ruled by a mayor belonging to a rival political party of the LP.

Alfred Romualdez, of the Nacionalista Party, had beaten the LP candidate for mayor in Tacloban, Bem Noel, a former party-list representative.

Yvonne Abonales, who plays a key role in relief good distribution by the Department of Social Welfare and Development in Eastern Visayas, said that as far as her office is concerned, all food packs intended for typhoon victims have been accounted for and distributed to the beneficiaries.

Since the DSWD started distributing relief goods on Nov. 9, at least two million food packs had been distributed to more than 273,000 families in areas in Biliran, Samar, Eastern Samar and Leyte, including Tacloban City.

These areas were the hardest hit by Yolanda.

According to Abonales, the DSWD workers in areas hit by the storm have not received any report of hoarding of goods, but “there are instances when we could not distribute relief items for the day.”

Abonales said DSWD workers could not immediately distribute relief goods to far-flung areas.



Hoarding of relief goods probed | Inquirer News