DISASTERS are not a Philippine monopoly. In the same fortnight when the country sank under the weight of two catastrophic floods, for instance, other countries suffered massive losses from other natural calamities too. This simple reminder, repeated at a time when the challenge confronting the nation has now turned into the search of funds for reconstruction, should sharpen the national government’s sense of urgency.

Instead, we see Malacañang frittering away much of the concern and attention it received from the international community, and wasting the public’s readiness to try dramatic measures, by fighting skirmishes over narrowly defined populist issues, such as the oil price cap.

What is needed at this time, the President’s favorite economic adviser, Albay Gov. Joey Salceda, told an Inquirer Briefing last week, is to “lock in the moment.”

He was referring, in particular, to the need for a real public-private task force to raise the funds for reconstruction: “Lock in the moment since 85% of the reconstruction work is likely to transcend into the next administration,” he said in his presentation, “through a high-profile credible institution through private-sector leadership armed with ‘centralized’ and ‘full powers’ so [that international] donors [will] talk to only one agency.”

That was the original intention behind Salceda’s proposal, which led to the creation, by executive fiat, of a Special National Public-Private Reconstruction Commission. That task force has since split into two: the Special National Public Reconstruction Commission (the retention of both “national” and “public” in the agency’s title betrays the commission’s origin), under the leadership of Finance Secretary Margarito Teves; and the Philippine Disaster Recovery Foundation, under the chairmanship of businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan.

The amoeba-like splitting up couldn’t be helped. In the first place, the fine print of the executive order (No. 832) creating the Commission took a long time in materializing; when the need of the time was for Malacañang to swiftly offer specifics, the public and the private sector that was supposed to take the lead in the joint commission were left guessing as to both detail and (eventually) motive.

In the second place—and this is something Salceda may diagree with—the original commission labored under the wages of sin. That is to say, President Macapagal-Arroyo’s legitimacy crisis created the need for a special commission led by the private sector. But, it has since become clear, that earlier and lingering crisis effectively prevented the private sector from leading the special commission.

Which is why Salceda, always the pragmatist, suggests that the twin bodies “lock in the moment” by appointing key personalities with some track record to take charge of relocation (he nominates Vice President Noli de Castro), agriculture rehabilitation (former Agriculture Secretary Domingo Panganiban) and flood control (former Marikina Mayor Bayani Fernando).

We can quibble with the details, but we do find Salceda’s recommendations to be based on the right policy framework for thinking about, and thinking through, the challenge of reconstruction.

“Reconstruction must be pursued in the context of development”—as we have written in this space, and as several columnists have pointed out in these pages, it is not enough to simply rebuild. If we merely replace what we lost, we won’t end up where we were before the great floods overwhelmed us; we will end up even worse off.

We cannot share Salceda’s assumption that all the reconstruction money can only come from “exogenous resources.” Perhaps the next administration will prove more nimble in unlocking the potential of the national budget, or more successful in plugging the billion-peso loopholes. But there is no question that much of the funding for reconstruction must be sourced from the country’s friends abroad.

We should be able to raise what we need if we redefine the assistance not as donation but as investment—and we can only do that if, in Salceda’s biting phrase, we reconstruct “as if we learned our lessons.”