IT has been more than a week now since Typhoon Ondoy ravaged Metro Manila and nearby provinces. We have all heard horror stories of people swept away by floods and families spending almost 24 hours atop their roofs while praying earnestly that the rising flood waters will not reach them. Thousands of families continue to live inside cramped evacuation centers as their homes and personal belongings were literally washed away. Those lucky enough to still manage to save their homes spent the last week cleaning up and fixing what was left. Personally, the whole ground floor of our house in Malabon was submerged for several hours in flood water, leaving all our electronic appliances including our two cars in our parking lot as casualties in the wake of Ondoy.
A highly respected mentor of mine told me last week that finger pointing and blaming at this time of crisis will not help but I also believe that if we as a people do not learn from this tragic experience then history may just repeat itself. Many questions come to my mind right now. Given the fact that we already know that we can expect more than 20 typhoons to visit us every year and we are also one of the most disaster prone countries around the world, why wasn’t our national government agencies led by the Department of National Defense ready or prepared to address such a national calamity? My friend and his family who spent more than 19 hours atop their house in Marikina wasn’t even rescued, they had to wait until the flood water had subsided before they went down on their own and walked their way out of their village. Another question is, why can our national leaders afford first class plane tickets, 5-star hotel accommodations and dinners at fancy restaurants in other countries yet we cannot even afford to buy enough rescue equipment such as rubber boats and amphibian vehicles? Finally, why did the flood water rise at such a high level and at such a fast pace? Where did the money for a better flood control and drainage system go? I hope the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) didn’t use it to purchase print ads on national dailies that depict their leader as the so-called, “Tamang Daan sa 2010”. International groups have consistently said that billions of pesos are lost every year due to graft and corruption that is rampant among many of our current government leaders. Imagine if those billions went to the development of better flood control systems, roads, rescue equipment and advanced weather prediction facilities then I’m sure not so many Filipinos would be suffering today.
Again, I totally agree that the blame game will get us nowhere but at the same time, we should also make sure that our government leaders who didn’t do their jobs should be held accountable for their actions or inaction. What we don’t want to happen is for people to forget that if only our current government leaders used our funds correctly then I’m sure not so many lives would’ve been lost, not so many houses would’ve been destroyed and not so many bright futures would’ve been shattered. In the 2010 elections, let us not forget these lessons that Ondoy taught us, let this serve as a reminder that by voting for the same old traditional politicians and leaders, we will get the same old service or lack of it that we are getting now. Let the 2010 elections be a time for all of us to finally say NO to this pervasive culture of prevailing self-interests and patronage politics. Finally, let our vote in 2010 be a vote for effective, ethical and empowering leadership that our people so truly deserve.
Allies of the government have said, stop the blame game, let us all unite in this times of crisis and just move on with our lives. Tell that to the mother that lost her home and her children last week. Tell that to the newly married couple that invested all their life savings on a brand new home only to see it washed away by the flood. Tell that to those families who continue to get sick while sharing a small 40 square meter classroom with 30 others inside an evacuation center.
Move on? Sure, let’s definitely move on since there is really no point to stay angry but let us hold our leaders accountable for what has happened, learn from this experience and promise ourselves that we all be involved in our own small way to help elect better leaders in 2010 because the Filipino people most certainly deserves much better than what we are getting now.
By Harvey S. Keh
