Without CNN, Desperate Filipinos would be Forgotten (Cebu Daily
News, The Philippines)
"Yolanda's destructive fury and the slow response of the
government to come to the aid of hundreds of thousands of displaced people, especially
in Leyte and Samar, are being reported around the clock by CNN. ... Although
news anchors are cautioned not to editorialize or express their opinions, I am
quite sure my international media colleagues are wondering what, five days into
the tragedy, our government is doing. ... Their compassion and generosity
strengthen our faith and keep our hopes alive."
A Tacloban City merchant keeps looters away in the aftermath supertyphoon Haiyan. Townspeople are desperate for food and water, and relief efforts are not going smoothly.
I
don't know where to begin!" Those were the words of a survivor of supertyphoon
Yolanda (international name, Haiyan) to CNN star Anderson
Cooper, after the journalist landed in Tacloban City five days after Yolanda slammed
into east-central Visayas, leaving towns flattened
and thousands dead. Tacloban City was the hardest hit of the 40 affected areas,
taking the brunt of five hours of storm surges that reduced the beautiful Cancabato Bay city into a wasteland.
Anderson
Cooper is CNN's lead anchor. A self-confessed news junkie before he made it to
the global cable channel's newsroom, he has covered war, political and civil
conflict, and large-scale tragedies around the world. When he traveled to
Tacloban I think he knew what was coming, and had mentally prepared a standard
introduction.
On
Monday Cooper arrived in Manila, and was expected to give updates from ground
zero, but tropical storm Zoraida stopped him from
flying to Tacloban. On Monday morning I caught him reporting from the Manila
International Airport (possibly Terminal 3) explaining the delay in his
schedule - but within hours he was off and running in the Leyte's provincial capital.
From
the center of Tacloban City, Anderson saw for himself what his colleagues had described
in earlier reports: angry and hungry people who cannot find food and water, cell
phone signals restoredbut no
electricity. Corpses and mountains of wreckage remain uncollected along main
streets and inner villages.
At
that moment, images from Cooper's previous assignments like wars in Bosnia,
Croatia, Afghanistan, Israel, Indonesia, Cambodia, Myanmar, and large scale
accidents that have occurred elsewhere entered his mind like file pages
flipping by in his mind. What he saw in Tacloban, the devastation and human
misery, appeared to overwhelm him, even as he recalled past catastrophes.
Those, although crushing in many respects, were two or even ten notches lower
compared to what he was seeing.
He
may have been tempted to open with a bewildered expression - except that the
first survivor he interviewed beat him to the draw.
"I
don't know where to begin," said the woman who lost her husband and three
children. Her three other offspring remain missing. She then led him to her
"barong-barong" (makeshift home) located some distance away from what
days ago the city's shopping center. Beside her hut she placed the corpses of
family members wrapped in plastic bags. Burial remains uncertain because during
the day she spent looking for her three missing children. In the evening she
retreats to the barong-barong and is too tired and hungry to mind the stench of
decomposing bodies. CNN edited the interview and replayed it with the caption,
"I don't know where to begin."
A
little later, Anderson was reporting from the city's main center and announced
that the first military contingent had arrived.
Yolanda's
destructive fury and the slow response of the government to come to the aid of
hundreds of thousands of displaced people, especially in Leyte and Samar, are
being reported around the clock by CNN.
Although
news anchors are cautioned not to editorialize or express their opinions, I am
quite sure my international media colleagues are wondering what, five days into
the tragedy, our government is doing. There must be an explanation because
people are crying, begging, and foraging for food like animals. Exposed to the
elements day and night, corpses continue to litter the streets, and relief
efforts aren't reaching a distressed population six days into the tragedy.
We
must thank international news networks for remaining focused on the
Philippines. Their coverage of the supertyphoon has prompted foreign countries
and private groups to respond immediately with massive humanitarian aid. The
United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, the Vatican, and many more
foreign governments, have donated millions of dollars and other forms of
logistical support.
A family in Tacloban City: Some of the poorest people in the world are
now even poorer. Will aid arrive in time?
We
are grateful for their compassion and support, but this would not be happening without
the heroic efforts of global media. Their coverage complements the work of
local media, which has gone far beyond basic news reporting. Many have run relief
campaigns in parallel with their coverage.
Their
compassion and generosity strengthen our faith and keep our hopes alive.
A call for mercy
flights
Unless
they have already begun, I call on all airline companies to come to the rescue
of our distressed brothers in Samar and Leyte. Thousands have already left
their devastated villages and thousands more want to flee, but after losing
everything, they cannot get out and lack the money for air ticket.
Posted By Worldmeets.US
Military
aircraft that fly in and out of Tacloban provide free passage, but the C-130
planes are limited. They prioritize the sick and the elderly, but many more are
crying out to be airlifted.
I
hope commercial air companies will be moved to provide free transport.
Philippine Air Lines, Cebu Pacific and budget airliners can either open special
mercy flights for a number of days or give at least 10 mercy seats per
scheduled flight when they land in Tacloban, perhaps until December this year.
The
survivors can choose to go to Cebu City or Manila where their relatives can taken
them in
