It is more fun criticizing
Manila Philippines, November 30, 2013
We met with our construction contractor for labor tonight. He just arrived from Leyte and he has been there since November 13, 2013 to assist his relatives who were victims of Typhoon Haiyan. He brought to assist his stricken relatives 50 relief packs and it cost him about a P100,000. He had many interesting stories to tell regarding the situation there:
Some relief goods distribution were just for a show
Not all were given relief goods. Those lines which were deemed to be full of people in same household were not given anymore. After photo ops, relief goods that were given were retrieved/recalled. Some relief packs were repacked (what for?)
Relief goods even as of this date have not reached the intended beneficiaries; why?
Some container goods were kept in warehouses and remained undistributed and heavily guarded in warehouses of local officials. What for?
Commandeered by the military?
He alleges that some relief goods carried by helicopters c/o the military were not 100% delivered; some were taken for personal use of the military personnel. Some military men were behind the pilferage of fuel in tanks (the guys in bonnet were encouraging the people to pilfer the gasoline in underground trunk? why?)
We can see generosity and cruelty of people in times of crisis
There was this townmate businessmen of this contractor who was hated before. But he brought from Cebu 3 truckloads of relief goods costing several hundreds of thousands of pesos to distribute to the typhoon victims in his town. On the other hand, there were rapes and robberies going on. Abandoned cars and motorbikes are being strippped for parts. There were wholesale theft of motorbikes in a store which was carried out clearly not in the name of survival.
There was even a band of robbers who shouted tsunami, and everybody ran away injuring many in the stampede that ensued. That was a ruse for the 3 robbers to rob the vacant houses. They were soon discovered and one of them was lynched, one was caught, and one ran away.
Gasoline is sold for 2x the price, construction materials are sold 2x their price that is why people cant rebuild their lost homes. If only construction materials were made available at prevailing market price
Lack of strong leadership and management needed
Our friend really deplored the politicking that was going on, greediness, self interest, and cruelty that was going on and the inability of the public sector to control this and take charge. It will tell heavily on the elective officials if they will still stay in office
Logistics management, crowd control, leadership must be practiced and taught. Many educated people only bring in cash, goods, and repacking labor to the table, but I guess we need good management practices in this kind of situation (and even morality and ethics) Amanpour was right - the actions here define the kind of people who lead and manage us.
Unbelievable devastation
From the stories he heard, the surge was more than 30 ft high. And people were not prepared for that. Many died from the ships that crushed their homes. There were little tornadoes that tore the structures apart. Would you believe that coconut trees were twisted by the strong wind?
