Editorial: The Tasks at Hand

October 18, 2009 in Baguio City, editorials

www.nordis.net

Many of us here in Northern Luzon are still mourning the loss of loved ones and the destruction of properties brought about by Typhoon “Pepeng”. Even as we do so, we also realize that we must pick up the pieces and move on, confronted as we are with the gargantuan tasks of rehabilitation to resume our normal lives.

For the farmers among us, this involves clearing the fields of debris, repairing the damaged dikes and irrigations, and plowing the fields again before planting whatever is the crop for the season. In these tasks, we would need all the help we could get from the government and the private sector to get us back on our feet, particularly the availability of agricultural credit and the repair of roads and bridges.

For those of us in small and medium-sized industries, this means having the raw materials available, getting the men and machine moving again and getting our products back into the market. Again, the availability of low-interest credit would be much appreciated to get us moving back to normal again.
For those of us whose houses were completely destroyed or partially damaged by this latest calamity, we would need the necessary loans to fix our places of abode, where we can rest our weary bones after a hard day’s work, even as we try to get over the trauma that the latest disaster has brought to our lives.

Even as everyone and sundry tries to get back into their normal lives, now is the time also to draw-up valuable lessons from the latest disaster to hit us in this part of the country. While the national government and its various agencies are still trying to assess the damage wrought by typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng, our local government units together with concerned civil society organizations can start coming together and identify the strengths and weaknesses in our disaster-preparedness and response. We need to do this now while the memory of the past calamity is still fresh and the sense of urgency is still high.

Surely there are precious insights and lessons gained from our latest experience in coping with the various disasters – landslides and floodings – brought about by typhoon “Pepeng” especially here in Northern Luzon. For instance, we can certainly improve our system – if there was any – in the distribution of relief goods. We have observed, for example, that there were instances where relief goods were being poured in one area up to the point where the recipients themselves were telling us that they have more than enough, while other disaster-hit areas were not receiving any relief at all. 

Then what can we say about some people in the mass media who were sowing intrigues and black propaganda against some of our countrymen even at the height of the relief and rescue operations? What we have in mind are some columnists and radio broadcasters who were bad-mouthing members of militant groups and progressive partylists even as these people were busy collecting and distributing relief goods to the victims the latest calamity. How would you feel when after walking for several hours to reach typhoon victims you would hear over the radio your organization being maligned by these pretentious media practitioners?

This and similar instances of below-the-belt carping do not help any in times of calamity. We need to clear the air of our community from this kind of commentaries if we are to work together hand-in-hand and move forward from the latest calamity. Like what one activist said: “No investigation, no right to speak.”# nordis.net

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