NOT SINCE the closing days of 1941, leading up to the entry of the conquering Japanese in the first days of 1942, have the national capital and its surrounding provinces experienced a collapse of governing authority such as what we witnessed in the days of tropical storm ?Ondoy? and typhoon ?Pepeng.? The destruction they wrought is on a scale comparable to wartime devastation.

The situation remains dire in Laguna and parts of Rizal. The extent of the disaster in other provinces ? from Zambales to Pangasinan ?
the continuing isolation of Baguio City and the cost in lives and property in Benguet, the inundation of La Union and destruction to crops in Nueva Ecija, all these present a colossal catalogue of wrecked infrastructure and personal tragedies that will take months, even years, to attend to.

Once again we reiterate our call for a national commission to undertake a study of the causes, costs and action to be taken in the wake of these disasters. We add to this the need for a rehabilitation plan to replace the infrastructure, public and private, that has been wrecked, and which, if sloppily rebuilt in a rush, will only lead to the same problems arising in the future instead of rectifying matters. Some of the wealthiest and most productive parts of the country have been laid waste; in an understandable desire to get back to normal, we may end up back where we began.

The outpouring of concern and support from Filipinos everywhere and friendly governments and people may dissipate, too, unless a plan for rational and scientific reconstruction and rehabilitation is put in place. Congress is poised to rush through a campaign-oriented budget, with legislators already increasingly focused on the campaign to come. But we need a reconstruction budget, and one in which all the potential candidates must participate and agree, because whoever becomes president in 2010 will end up with his hands tied, so to speak, by the limitations of the budget that will be passed by the outgoing 14th Congress.

If there was ever a time for the Council of State to be convened, the time is now. Those who have declared themselves interested in the presidency and vice presidency, in particular, must individually assure the public that partisanship will take a backseat to what should be a ?people?s budget? for 2010. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo herself, who is ending her term, must take a backseat as well, albeit she nominally continues to preside over the government; and she should give her potential successors ? all of them ? a chance to be heard on a budget that one of them will have to build on eventually.

The only other alternative is to convene the Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council (Ledac) with a minimum of political grandstanding and fuss, and without relying on the ruling coalition taking center stage. This is a case where the ruling coalition has borne the brunt of the disasters, politically, and has been found terribly wanting.

Again, we believe that if political officials were armed with a report put together by a specially appointed body, the opportunities to extract political advantage from Ondoy and Pepeng will be minimized. We made our call in the first days of the tragedy. Those days passed without the President or her people lifting a finger to take the big picture into account. But it?s not too late.

We would even be so bold ? considering the exhaustion, even the shell-shocked lack of dynamism that seems to characterize the executive department at this time ? to propose some suitable candidates for such a commission. To name just a few: Solita Monsod, for the economic aspects, and as a chairperson who can crack the whip and come out with a report in a reasonable amount of time; Paulo Alcazaren for the urban and environmental planning aspect; Sen. Richard Gordon (for the Red Cross? lessons), and presidential wannabes Noynoy Aquino, Chiz Escudero and Manny Villar, all of whom mobilized private sector volunteers; and Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro Jr. who has already mentioned the reforms he envisions for the National Disaster Coordinating Council.