Cover-ups and the blame game

Two weeks have passed since the supertyphoon “Haiyan” made her presence felt in central Philippines.  So far, about 5,000 people were reported dead, and thousand more missing and left homeless.  The infrastructures lost were reportedly worth billions of pesos already.  Sadly, the snail-paced response of the Philippine government got the ire of a lot of Filipinos both here and abroad. More unfortunate is the unsavory reaction of public officials on the criticisms hurled against them.  Instead of making improvement and dealing with the issues head-on,  they resorted to cover-ups and the blame game. 

First, when CNN correspondent  Anderson Cooper reported on the miserable situation of the people in Tacloban and the seemingly lack of government presence , no less than the President himself responded by saying that reporters should give accurate reports.  A lot of Filipinos gave mixed reaction to that statement of the President.  Who should we believe? The President sitting in air-conditioned room at the Malacanang Palace, or the reporter on the field?    But one thing is sure,  Mr. Anderson Cooper is a hero and has endeared himself to the Filipinos for his accurate reporting. 

Second, the President when interviewed live on CNN chided the local officials for the slow paced response,  and confusion in the relief distribution.  Again, this statement led most Filipinos to curse this government.  Either the President was ill-advised or just plain stupid.  Maybe he forgot that  Tacloban and most of Leyte has just been ravished by  a supertyphoon packing winds of around 300 kph.  Everyone in Leyte are victims of “Haiyan” including local officials.  Hours after the calamity, no local government unit there was functioning.  In fact some government officials and employees went missing.  They were helpless.  And here comes our dear President blaming the local officials for causing confusion on the relief distributions…  ?!#$!! L

Third,  when tons of relief goods starting pouring in, for reasons only known to the Department of Social Welfare and Development, they decided to re-pack these, and labeled with the name “DSWD” on the packs.  When confronted by local media, they simply stated that they need to check on the food items received because they might be expired already.  Someone familiar with the underworld said that days or weeks from now,  some of these imported relief goods might already be seen on the streets being sold by vendors.  How insulting could that be for the givers.  I don’t know what this government is up to.... God help the Philippines.