Into the breach

The martial law period haunts us still. Its ghosts are not only threatening Leyte’s Tacloban City in the form of the demand of both the local government and the business community that President Benigno Aquino III declare martial law there, and the latter’s alleged openness to that possibility. They’re there as well in the fact that a family that has been closely identified with Ferdinand Marcos and the martial law period, the Romualdezes, are not only in control of almost the whole province; they have not made much of a difference in the tragedy that is now Leyte either.

Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, the son of the late Benjamin “Kokoy” Romualdez, is the  congressman for the first district of Leyte. His aunt, “Kokoy’s” sister and currently second district of Ilocos Norte Congresswoman Imelda Romualdez Marcos, used to represent the same district (1995-1998). The mayor of Tacloban is Alfred Romualdez, another Imelda Marcos nephew.   Alfred’s wife is a city councilor of Tacloban.

Leyte and Tacloban are the most devastated among the provinces and cities in the path of “Yolanda” (international name “Haiyan”) and its 300+ kilometer-per-hour winds. Unlike such other provinces as Antique, both the city and the rest of the province were particularly unprepared. Days after Tacloban was practically destroyed, the broadcast media were reporting that there was no visible local government presence in the city, whether in the form of the police or the most minimal relief operations by local government agencies.

The extent of Tacloban’s unpreparedness was also evident in the death of over a hundred people who had sought refuge in a building that the storm surge at the height of Yolanda’s devastation inundated with 19-foot high waves. The looting that later ensued in  some parts of the city was for the most part provoked by desperation over the lack of food and water as well as places for refuge. In a bizarre replication of the martial law era practice of blaming the victims for their own problems, it’s now being used by the local government as the justification for declaring martial law.

Both the first incident, and the looting that was tellingly indicative of the decline and even absence of law and order, raise the question of whether the local government had even taken the time and effort to deploy the police in threatened areas, to issue guidelines on the perils of the storm surge that Yolanda was likely to generate, and where threatened citizens could safely seek refuge once the typhoon hit.

In the wake of the devastation wrought by Typhoon “Yolanda,” Philippine media organizations have once again launched the usual campaigns to raise funds for the relief of the victims. The three leading networks, ABS-CBN 2, GMA-7 and TV5, and some broadsheets have been asking their audiences to contribute funds as well as clothes, food, medicine and water to the dazed survivors. They are also preparing to conduct relief operations themselves. This time, however, they are also standing in for some local governments by providing the information on the casualties, the survivors and the damage that the latter were as of November 11 failing to provide, especially in Tacloban and other Leyte cities.

The media’s assuming such additional responsibilities as raising funds for relief operations and even undertaking such operations themselves is not new. But the particularities of the Yolanda devastation and the glaring inefficiencies of local governments and the political dynasties that rule them have thrust upon some of the media organizations the task of serving as communication hubs where survivors and their kin in other parts of the Philippines and in other countries can exchange information as to the former’s situation and needs. Print and broadcast reporters who were at the scene, and who have returned to their home studios, have also served as bearers of information from the survivors to their kin in Metro Manila and other places.

The media have filled the breach in local government service and information beyond reporting events, and in the process have enhanced public appreciation of their indispensability. But the unfolding tragedy that is the aftermath of the devastation wrought by “Yolanda” should result in Filipino awareness of the fatal consequences of keeping in power the same families that, while having ruled their communities for so long, are practically of no earthly use during emergencies except to wait them out in their luxurious Metro Manila homes or in the capital’s five-star hotels.