New York Times Joins CNN in Shaming Aquino Typhoon Response (The
Daily Tribune, The Philippines)
"'We've been telling the media that the Aquino government
is not responding systematically enough to save the victims of Yolanda. Now CNN
has finally exposed the truth which President Aquino has been attempting to
hide from the world for the past five days - that people are being left to
their own devices in dealing with this massive disaster,' says Representative Emmi De Jesus. De Jesus
said she shares the worries expressed by donors around the world, that the donations
they want to send Yolanda victims may end up in the pockets of government
officials."
By Angie M.
Rosales, Ed Velasco, Charlie V. Manalo and Gina
Peralta-Elorde
Philippines President Benigno Aquino is having a 'Katrina moment' on steroids, as his nation reels from the scale of the disaster wrought by Typhoon Haiyan.
International
media continue to step up its criticism of the slow government response to the
frantic appeals for relief from the survivors of supertyphoon Yolanda. This
time it was The
New York Times reporting that widespread
anger and impatience is being directed by Filipinos at President Aquino, on the
heels of CNN's
stinging rebuke of the government's near paralysis in the face of the
unprecedented crisis in Tacloban City.
Allies
of President Benigno Aquino, led by Senate President Franklin Drilon, frantically sought to defend the administration
from international criticism, attributing the slow pace of relief efforts to
the massive scale of the devastation, with multiple areas requiring
simultaneous attention from government.
Drilon pointed out that the power and extent
of the damage brought about by the typhoon was incomparable to Hurricane Katrina,
which hit the United States in 2005 in which the most significant number of
deaths occurred in New Orleans, Louisiana.
"I've
heard about them (reports by foreign correspondents). Perhaps it was just their
impression - and with the extent of damage, it's understandable that not
everything will be given an immediate solution," he said.
"In
the case of Katrina in the U.S., and the U.S. being considered a developed
country, still, a number of people also complained. It took them several days
before some of the casualties were collected. Even with their resources, they
were unable to cope immediately with the problems," Drilon
pointed out.
Nonetheless,
in an article yesterday, The New York
Times wrote, "Filipinos are losing patience with the slow relief
effort, increasingly angry with their president, Benigno
S. Aquino III, a popular figure who has until now navigated multiple crises
during his three years in office."
TheTimes said Aquino is now "facing
the biggest challenge of his presidency, and even allies say he appears to have
been caught off guard by the scope of the crisis."
"He
has to move fast, otherwise this will engulf him," The Times quoted Senator Miriam Defensor
Santiago as saying.
Although
aircraft have begun arriving with badly needed supplies, much of the aid
remains undistributed because of impassable roads, a dearth of functioning
vehicles, and inadequate fuel supplies.
In
a statement, Doctors Without Borders described
the situation in Tacloban City as "total chaos."
"Efforts
to reach the city of Tacloban in Leyte Province are being complicated by roads
that are blocked with debris, as well as strong winds and torrential rain that
have led to many flights into the area being cancelled," the statement
read.
"The
situation is catastrophic - it's total chaos," Dr. Natasha Reyes, Doctors Without
Borders emergency coordinator in the Philippines, said. "Access is extremely
difficult and is preventing people from receiving help. Our priority is to get
to those people in more isolated areas; they are the hardest to reach and often
the last to receive much-needed assistance," she added.
The Times noted that
Aquino flew to the devastated city of Tacloban on Sunday, but said "his
public statements have struck some as insensitive. He lashed out at looters and
seemed to criticize local officials for their initial failure to help the
living and count the dead. Some critics say he has held fast to national pride
rather than issue forceful appeals for international assistance."
The
other day, CNN senior correspondent Anderson Cooper criticized the Aquino
government's lethargic response to the crisis saying "there isn't enough
aid" and the little that gets in "isn't getting out to those who need
it the most."
The Times also picked up the
now famous sarcastic response of Aquino to a local business owner who
complained of being held up at gunpoint by looters. "But you did not die,
right?" Aquino snapped shortly before presidential guards ushered the man
out of the room, The Times reported.
Local
media then also connected Aquino's loss of temper during a situation briefing
at Tacloban City to the fact that a political opponent, Alfredo Romualdez is the city's mayor. The Palace denied Aquino was
playing politics amid the monumental humanitarian crisis.
Presidential
Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio "Sonny"
Coloma Jr. said that the government isn't engaged in buck-passing or
finger-pointing in this situation.
"We
never engage in buck-passing. And we intend to apply the lessons learned to
improve our disaster management and response mechanism," Coloma said -
with a straight face.
"If
there are criticisms, we accept them. We never said we wouldn't be prone to error.
But what I can say is that we never intentionally neglected our duties,"
Coloma said in response to the growing international rebuff being sent Aquino's
way. Still, he said the government is open to constructive criticism, so it can
improve and prepare for the future.
The
Palace statement was in complete contrast to the admission of National Disaster
Risk Reduction and Management Council executive director, Undersecretary
Eduardo del Rosario, "that politics persists in the delivery of relief
goods by local officials.... Politics
should be removed. Instead, the focus should be on relief distribution,"
Del Rosario said.
Interior
Secretary Manuel Roxas II also conceded that the pace
of relief efforts is slow. Yet Roxas insisted,
despite all evidence to the contrary, that the Aquino government has a system
in place to address calamities, but that the magnitude of the devastation is
too great.
"What
is important is that our relief efforts are organized and that we are slowly getting
relief to our people," Roxas said.
According
to The New York Times, "Having
been warned days in advance about the route and strength of the typhoon, some
critics say the government should have evacuated residents from coastal areas,
noting India's successful evacuation last month of more than 800,000 people in
the path of Cyclone Phailin. In the end, only a few dozen deaths were
reported."
It
also quoted Benito Lim, a political analyst at Ateneo
de Manila University, as saying the government had long been focused on
short-term relief rather than long-range planning.
"The
government thinks it's enough to give out packages of noodles, cans of sardines
and rice," he said. "The problem is that suffering by the poor has
become a normal thing in the Philippines," Lim added.
Former
Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said Aquino "started
on the wrong foot" in dealing with the crisis.
"In
the face of such a massive loss of human life and the destruction of private
property in Tacloban City, and many parts of Visayas,
President Aquino started on the wrong foot," Diokno
told the Daily Tribune, in an
exclusive interview.
According
to Diokno, Aquino should have called for unity and
the bayanihan spirit [national spirit], instead of
blaming local officials in Leyte and Samar.
"He
forgot that the maintenance of peace and order is a national, not local
concern. Local chief executives don't control the police force. Article XVI,
Section 6 of the 1987 Constitution provides that: The state shall establish and
maintain one police force which shall be national in scope and civilian in
character, to be administered and controlled by a national police commission.
Administratively, the PNP chief reports to the DILG
secretary," the former budget chief said.
Former
Finance Secretary MargaritoTeves
also advised Aquino that he should've shown more humility toward CNN's ChristianeAmanpour while she interviewed
him [watch below]. At least two other senior CNN reporters, Anderson Cooper and
Andrew Stevens, severely criticized the national government while reporting to
the rest of the planet live from Tacloban City.
Stevens
said "there's no real evidence of organized recovery, organized relief
going on."
According
to Teves, Aquino should have said that aid and
assistance to victims in Tacloban City and other parts of Samar, Leyte and Biliran, were underway, instead of insisting that help was
already in place.
"He
could have displayed more humility," the former secretary told The Tribune via text message. A source
who refused to be identified said that if Gloria Arroyo was still president,
the very slow government response would not have happened.
"If
there was calamity, Gloria went directly to the National Disaster Risk Reduction
and Management Council office. She would take breakfast and lunch there. She would
have spoken to every official, especially those who serve as the weakest link in
relief efforts.
Former
Leyte governor and energy secretary Petilla was once heavily
scolded when he was caught doing nothing as floods ravaged Leyte some years
back," the source said.
Amanpour told Aquino: "The way you respond will
define your presidency." Yet instead of admitting government fault, Aquino
quickly laid the blame on local executives.
Teves - the former finance secretary, said that
the slow government response to victims of the typhoon is causing the
government to lose opportunities. "Still, a little humility would have
been helpful, especially in these trying times," he said.
Rosemarie
Church, a CNN anchor in Atlanta Georgia, commented that Aquino was trying to
evade responsibility. Her co-anchor agreed.
Senator
Francis Escudero, an Aquino ally, said in a social
media message that "we in government should not be onion-skinned and
defensive regarding criticism. ... We should listen, clarify if needed, learn
from it and try to do better," he added.
Drilon tried to dampen the flak that the
Aquino government is now receiving, both from local and global news
organizations, saying that he fully understands the role of media in issuing
criticism.
"But
perhaps at this time, we Filipinos should instead try to unite to help our
helpless countrymen and our government. That is what our country so badly needs
now - to stand united," he added.
Drilon appealed for a moratorium of sorts on criticism
or debates on the number of deaths, saying that finger pointing as to where the
government fell short can be set aside for the moment.
"We
can institute measures later, in order to be more effective with relief
operations if this happens again. Let us unite. Let us stop criticizing. Instead
of criticizing the slow distribution of relief goods, critics might instead
suggest how to speed up operations. Instead of criticism, let us suggest
solutions," he said.
Posted By Worldmeets.US
In
a television interview, reacting to a CNN report that the government has been
slow to pick up corpses scattered along streets a week after the storm, Interior
Secretary Roxas said that government teams have begun
picking them up - the problem being that there are just so many of them.
"There
are two shifts picking up cadavers, and some of the corpses are already in body
bags apparently from the last shift, so we don't move those," Roxas explaining, adding that there are many unidentified
cadavers in the streets that are also going unclaimed.
An understandably incredulous looking man stands near what was
once his home, in Tacloban City, the Philippines.
Roxas then commented to the "slow
operations" of the government in bringing much needed aid and supplies, noting
that "nothing is fast enough in a situation like this."
Roxas disclosed that as of Wednesday night,
at least 160,000 food packs have been distributed and that each relief pack feeds
a family of five for three days.
As
of Wednesday night, the official death toll remained at 2,344, with 3,804
injured and 79 missing.
Gabriela
Representative Emmi De Jesus said Aquino should have had
a more constructive reaction to criticisms, for example, doing actual relief
work himself.
"We've
been telling the media that the Aquino government is not responding systematically
enough to save the victims of Yolanda. Now CNN has finally exposed the truth which
he has been attempting to hide from the world for the past five days - that
people are being left to their own devices in dealing with this massive
disaster," De Jesus said.
De
Jesus said she shares the worries expressed by donors around the world, that
the donations they want to send Yolanda victims may end up in the pockets of
government officials. De Jesus said that CNN's live report underlines the
looming health crisis that may well add to the number of deaths, reported as
high as 10,000. Anderson Cooper and Paula Hancocks saw
firsthand hundreds of dead bodies littering the streets of Leyte, unattended
almost a week after Yolanda flattened the region.
What
is more alarming, de Jesus says, is the absence of any functioning health
facility to cater to the medical needs of the people.
