Four months after Yolanda: Post-disaster news coverage

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SOURCE: Department of Tourism YouTube Channel

 

Rehabilitation

CMFR’s monitor on post-disaster coverage reviewed reports from Manila broadsheets, news programs, and online news sites from December 2013 to February 2014.

Journalists cannot just wait for government agencies to tell the story. Moving from relief to rehabilitation, the search for information must be pro-active, based on a hypothesis of how rehabilitation of this magnitude must proceed if it is have some chance of success. The Center for Media Freedom & Responsibility (CMFR) has said it before: “the media mind set needs to break away from the passive, reactive mode and re-evaluate its role as information provider.”

This stage calls for sustained reporting. Media must know how it should move forward in order to be able to track the money trail, the assignments given to government agencies and officials with specific assignments and responsibilities. This overview empowers the public to act as “watchdog” of the process.

There is a growing literature based on disaster relief and rehabilitation efforts around the world, including the Philippines. These resources can help the media work out a plan for coverage of the continuing process of rehabilitation. Every disaster is different, and communities around the world are also different from one another. But knowledge about success stories and best practices are a useful reference which can help media probe the issues when problems arise.

Lacson as PARR

It helps both media and government to have someone in charge overall. President Aquino named Senator Panfilo Lacson as Presidential Assistant for Rehabilitation and Recovery (PARR). Lacson then becomes a key source and reference for the tracking of the long-term assistance and rehabilitation.

“Media in all its formats must connect the disaster-stricken communities to those outside who can do something to assist.”

CMFR’s review of coverage for this period shows media’s dependence on cases and examples to tell the story. Reports have relied only on what sources provide at the moment. Because sources determine how much information they wish to provide at given points in time, the media must learn to raise pertinent and relevant questions, to draw out more extensive answers as well as to draw attention to gaps and weaknesses.

Lacson was appointed as rehab czar last December 2. Memorandum order No. 62, which President Benigno Aquino III signed on December 6, mandates Lacson to “act as overall manager and coordinator of rehabilitation and recovery in the areas devastated by super typhoon Yolanda, including Samar, Leyte, Negros, Cebu, Bohol, Capiz, Aklan, Antique and Palawan.”

In his first press briefing last December 2, Lacson said the task of reconstructing the areas ravaged by typhoon Yolanda is “daunting but doable” within the period of Aquino’s presidency and that “90 percent of the problem will be solved in three years.” He revealed some of his plans which include putting up permanent housing units for Yolanda survivors and rebuilding schools and hospitals. He also said he would ask the help of the private sector in the rehab effort. No comprehensive plan was mentioned but Lacson said he is looking into the rehab models used in the aftermath of World War II and in the 2006 tsunami in Aceh, Indonesia.

In his second press briefing on January 23, Lacson emphasized the role of the private sector and said they have divided the 171 cities and municipalities damaged by Yolanda into 24 clusters or development areas. Lacson said he expects the actual implementation of the “minimum musts” which means building schools, gymnasiums, multi-purpose halls and hospitals “in the coming weeks.”

In another press briefing on January  27, Lacson said the four major sectors—housing, health, education, and livelihood—should be finished “in the next 30 months or so.” He acknowledged the help of the private companies and said these corporations “are already deep in their planning” and that they already have a time table to follow. Lacson, however, did not mention any comprehensive long-term rehab strategy guiding this activity.

Unfortunately, Lacson’s piece meal briefings suggested that the government had not yet formulated its long-term plans and strategy for all affected provinces. Altogether, his press briefings still failed to provide an overview of the rehab plan.

Neither did it set a time-frame which would help both media and the public to chart the progress or its lack. Lacson only said the target is to finish the rehabilitation of the affected areas by 2016. Media should have pursued the logic of this statement and inquired about specific project targets (hazard mapping, approval of models for transitional and then permanent shelters, livelihood targets and the like). If Lacson did not have this information, then reports should have noted this lack  as problematic.

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