Even way back on the 24th October this year, Ibon Foundation had already highlighted in a report the unimpressive performance of the Philippine government in the rehabilitation of the disaster zones left by Haiyan. The report quotes numbers from the Office of the Presidential Assistant for Rehabilitation and Recovery (OPARR) which show that the region is “still in the relief phase and barely starting to recover almost a year after the typhoon struck. Typhoon Yolanda affected 1.5 million families of whom 918,261 families were outright displaced.”
The most damning metrics can be found in what has (not) been achieved in the rebuilding of critical infrastructure vital to resuscitating the economy of the region…
Hundreds of thousands of people remain without homes and lead a precarious existence in temporary shelters most of which were constructed to substandard quality.
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Kids have no school facilities to go to, adding another layer to the poverty trap many of Haiyan’s victims already find themselves in.
The cost of basic goods and services which had skyrocketed following the disaster will likely remain high as vital land transport links remain decrepit and neglected.
Other critical infrastructure facilities needed to support the region’s enormous population languish in disrepair owing to the all-too-familiar paralysis the Philippine government had exhibited over the last 12 months.
It is, indeed, not surprising that the international community which had contributed huge amounts of resources to the rescue and relief effort last year is now highly critical and utterly disappointed with the dismal results the Philippines and its government led by President Benigno Simeon ‘BS’ Aquino III has shown thus far…
The Aquino administration is reeling from criticism that it has bungled the recovery work in the Haiyan-affected towns. Even the Commission on Audit has released a scathing report which questioned the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s “inefficient” utilization and distribution of funds and donations intended for typhoon survivors. Critics also pointed out that the government’s comprehensive rehabilitation plan was only signed by Aquino on October 29, or a few days before the first anniversary of the Haiyan disaster. This means that relief and recovery efforts in the past months have been undertaken by various agencies without a master plan to guide the activities.
With Christmas fast approaching, it remains to be seen if Filipinos will take the cue from this big reality check on the sincerity and seriousness they claim they apply with regard to the plight of the victims of Typhoon Haiyan and be a bit more circumspect in the appalling consumerism they exhibit every time the Silly Season rolls in.
Abangan ang susunod na kabanata.
[Photo courtesy The Australian.]
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
Prediction: Nothing gets done, Filipinos will simply rage at the world for not understanding their “culture” and go right back to mediocrity and government screwing the people with smiles on their faces.
The behavior of this country as a whole is not unlike most internet lolcows. Unwilling to learn and improve.
I agree. And didn’t anybody notice NO ONE is updating the number of dead? I want them to so that somebody can take responsibility. Its above 8,000 right? Which in other societies is enough to make their president resign.
Great! Thanks for the bar graph, Benign0. These easily shows how little has been accomplished and what’s not done by our government because of their incapability and focus on solving the wrong problems or focusing on menial solutions (or not focusing at all on the “real” problems). One can fairly conclude that the Philippine Government’s mission is really to keep the poor in poverty (giving boats instead of bigger and modern fishing vessels to the fishermen, giving pedicabs instead of starting a public transit where local folks can serve as drivers with regular wages…) or to keep the country in the third world category. I’m sorry to say this but NGO’s should also be as transparent as they could in handling the donations since we still have the Napoles NGOs P10B scam going nowhere.
by boats I mean the “local bancas”. And of course there’s the cheap, temporary, not disaster-resilient bunkhouses that took almost a year to finish.
I agree. Nothing — absolutely nothing — will get done.
Yet those same unfortunate morons will go and vote for the same retarded politicians who did nothing for them.
The definition of stupid: Doing the same shit over and over and somehow expecting different results.
Now let’s see the ₱ spent versus ₱ begged graph!
The Bar Graphs show the dismal performance of the Aquino administration on the rebuilding to the government infrastructures; and relief of the Typhoon victims.
Roxas, who is the “Poster Boy” of the Esquire Magazine. And is aspiring to replace his Boss Aquino, has nothing to show of his performance. He has to use the “Politics of Destruction” on his fellow aspirants.
Roxas has no platform; no good performance; questionable accomplishment as Senator; etc…
The idiot has to rely on: pedicab driving; being a “traffic aide”; being an onion bag carrier; and being a “Poster Boy” of Esquire Magazine…
It is not only Mr. Aquino at fault but also our great NHA housing Czar Mr. Binay. In any case, I don’t think ANY Filipino could have done better. In the first place, it was quite foolish for anyone to promise to rebuild a city in a year. Only developed countries with a lot of resources can rebuild within a year. It is a monumental task to rebuild up a city that took decades to develop.
But for sure lots of nice houses were built during the last year…….by politicians…..for themselves……somewhere else…..
The International community should be fuckin OUTRAGED at the outright theft that the Philippines government has conducted with the recovery funds sent to the country for the VICTIMS ! If any country send sanother single peso/dollar/euro to the SCUMBAGS that run the thievery ring that is the current gov’t. that country should remove from office anyone responsible for releasing said funds to the thieves that run the Philippines.
It is an outright disgrace that the Philippines has obviously stolen the vast majority of the funds that were sent directly to the Philippines for the victims of this tragic disaster. The government has not only be slow to direct the rehab work but at this point it can only be surmised that the FUNDS/GOODS have been STOLEN and will not be going where they should have been going 12 months ago. THIS IS AN OUTRAGE and the politicians/thieves responsible for the theft should be thrown in PRISON.