Like Boy Scouts, we should always be prepared
A supertyphoon like “Yolanda” that hit the Visayas, Southern Luzon and Northern Mindanao with its 235-kph winds can be deadly even to the best prepared. Still, the best preparations will minimize casualties.
As of this writing, the official death count is only four but scores of dead bodies were seen by news crews littering the streets of Tacloban City in Leyte province, the hardest hit by Yolanda, with the Red Cross estimating the death toll to be as many as 1,000. Not surprisingly, Tacloban was the least prepared for the deadly typhoon, the strongest in the world this year with sustained winds of 235 kph and gusts of 275 kph. President Aquino said the other day he would “take to task” local officials in Leyte for failing to prepare for the supertyphoon.
The final casualty count can really be high. Still, P-Noy’s hands-on role in the government’s “war-like preparations” probably saved a lot of lives.
In any emergency, the first mission of the government is to protect the lives and property of its citizens. Nothing can save houses and structures made of light materials from a Category 5 typhoon. But preemptive evacuation, ordered by the national government and implemented by local government units, saved many lives although some evacuation centers were not spared the floods and their roofs ripped off by gale-force winds.
P-Noy readied and prepared the areas closest to the path of Yolanda. Early on, he issued a televised warning for people to leave high-risk areas—coastal communities prone to storm surges, areas near rivers susceptible to flooding, and villages at the foot of hills and mountains that are at risk to landslides.
National and local authorities evacuated thousands of people from villages in the path of Yolanda. Schools and offices were closed. These preemptive evacuations reduced casualties, particularly, in Eastern Visayas, Bicol and on the island of Bohol where residents are still recovering from the deadly earthquake that killed more than 200 people and destroyed churches and plenty of homes last month.
But regardless of how prepared government is, there will always be inadequacies. The people were warned against storm surges, the big waves pushed by the strong winds. Still, most of the casualties were caused by the tsunami-like storm surge that swept through the city like a huge watery scythe and took back into the sea people, vehicles, bancas and the debris from wrecked homes.
One aspect that the government, national and local, was unprepared for was the ugly reality of looting. Typhoon victims in Tacloban looted stores and shopping malls, taking not only food and water, warm clothes and shelter, but anything they could lay their hands on, like laptops and electric fan. Television footage showed a crowd looting the malls in Tacloban with nobody trying to stop it. There were no policemen nor soldiers on site. The mall’s security guards probably fled when they saw the approaching mob. One video showed several men escaping with a pushcart piled high with loot from the mall.
The national government said during a press conference Saturday that it would fly in from Metro Manila policemen and troops the next morning. By that time the malls and other stores would already be empty. There would be nothing to save anymore.
Pagasa made accurate predictions about Yolanda’s path and strength, which helped the government in its planning and preparations for the supertyphoon. Interior Secretary Mar Roxas and Defense Secretary Volt Gazmin were already in Tacloban to supervise operations before the typhoon struck.
There were rescuers from the military, police and the Bureau of Fire Protection (there was a fire during the heavy rains, which firemen put out).
The Department of Social Welfare and Development had prepositioned 27,550 family food packs in Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon), Mimaropa (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, Palawan), Bicol, Western Visayas, Eastern Visayas, Central Visayas, Northern Mindanao, and the Caraga region. The DSWD also requested the National Food Authority to provide 100,000 sacks of rice to eight typhoon-hit regions.
Cabinet members were ordered to take hands-on roles in the preparations for the supertyphoon. Local governments, down to the barangays, were prepared and provided with the facilities needed to cope with the initial impact of the typhoon.
Help was ready and dispatched promptly. Shelter, food and water were ready. Vehicles, including rubber boats and newly-purchased amphibious vehicles to be used for evacuations were prepositioned in strategic areas.
“Be prepared” is the motto of the Boy Scouts. It would be good for us and the whole nation to adopt this motto. Be prepared.
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The lecture that Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago delivered to Janet Lim-Napoles during the blue ribbon committee hearing was, I am happy to note, parallel to the advice given to Napoles by this column in the Nov. 8 issue of the Inquirer: to talk for the record to save herself from assassination plots of lawmakers she could take down with her.
The logic is this: Napoles obviously knows the lawmakers and other public officials she gave kickbacks to, and her testimony would certainly bring them to prison. But a dead woman tells no tales.
Rich and powerful officials therefore would be glad to see her dead and help in that direction by hiring hitmen to silence her.
But if Napoles would already put her testimony on record, there would be no more advantage in assassinating her. Her recorded testimony could be used as evidence against the accused. There would be no more use in killing her. The plotters would only add “murder” to the cases they are already facing.
