The greatest crime and disaster

Reflections fromPaseo de Coro

Almost two weeks have passed since Yolanda’s destructive visit to the Visayas but until today I still feel so depressed.

You see, it is so sad to see that in the midst of the greatest calamity that we ever encountered in the country, there are still people who would rather talk politics and bash the President and the government for the slow response instead of lifting their hands to offer assistance. Now I wonder if they are still true Filipinos.

If the bashers have some sense of perspective, I hope they will take note of this.

Northern Cebu was also hard hit by Yolanda because it went straight there after unleashing its full fury in Guiuan, Samar and Tacloban City. The hardest hit in Cebu consist only of less than 20 municipalities which included the populous Bogo City and the two islands of Bantayan and Camotes, now famous for tourism. Yet, despite their nearness to Cebu City where a well-organized relief operation was mounted by various civic and business groups, the provincial government of Cebu, regional offices of the national government that are still 100 percent operational and the presence of an international airport and seaport that can handle relief goods coming from other parts of the country and abroad, I would say that about a third if not more of the victims still need to be reached and given assistance. What is worse is that as long as life among the victims is not yet back to normal they will continuously be needing help which makes relief work more daunting. If this is happening in northern Cebu, how much more in badly battered and distant areas in Samar and Leyte.

There is no question that the Philippine government is not apt to the present challenge. And that is why, after knowing our predicament, the Americans, Japanese and many more foreign nations and international aid organizations are here. However, no matter how great their resources, they still have to face the difficult task of finding everyone in need and determining how to bring help to them on time. The victims of Yolanda are simply so staggering in number with most of them actually living in places that are not easy to reach even in good times.

Just how extensive is the havoc brought by Yolanda?

If you do not know, Samar and Leyte in Eastern Visayas consists of six provinces, seven cities, 136 municipalities and 4,390 barangays with a combined population of 4.1 million as of the 2010 census. Perhaps it is safe to say that only half of them are in dire situation but if we add the figures for Northern Cebu (Region VII), the north end of Negros Occidental and Panay Island in Western Visayas (Region VI) plus the battered provinces or islands in Mimaropa (Region IV-B) then the figure of people needing assistance could reach 6 to 9 million.

If you do not know again, official statistics says that 27.9 percent of the Filipinos are living in poverty as of the first half of last year. But it just happens that in Western Visayas (Samar-Leyte) the rate is even higher at 45.4 percent broken down as follows: Eastern Samar, 67.1 percent; Northern Samar, 53,1 percent; Western Samar; 44.0 percent; Biliran, 28.1 percent; Leyte, 40.2; and Southern Leyte, 42.8. These figures are telling us that even without a calamity, almost half of the populations of Eastern Visayas really need constant help.

The Americans, with the highest nominal GDP in the world at $15.7 trillion, far ahead of China’s $8.2 trillion, have all the logistics and resources in command but unlike God they cannot be possibly present in all places at the same time. Thus, many victims still have to wait for their turn to receive assistance. Of that I am very sure but the bashers even think that they can do it better than P-Noy as if they have the strength of the Superman.

To the bashers, may God be merciful to you and bring you back to your senses.

Now here comes Lipa Archbishop Ramon Arguelles who believes that calamities in the country should be a reminder for Filipinos not to forget God. He claimed that disasters could be the result of “ungodly” laws such as the Reproductive Health (RH) Law.

My dear Archbishop, it does not follow that just because we passed the RH Law, this “ungodly” law as you call is causing the disaster that came with Yolanda. This is preposterous.

Just look at this. In the 1960s we had about the same population and per capita income as Thailand. Now we have 50 percent more people but less than half in income than in Thailand, putting many of our people in poverty.

Despite our high incidence of poverty, Archbishop Arguelles and his company in the church who profess to love the poor would still wish our people to continue producing more children as long as they can. Who suffers in the end from blind obedience to this call? These are the malnourished children who die before their time, the unschooled kids who are forced to do child labor in order to help the family get something to eat, the uneducated and unskilled worker who find it hard to get a job and the poorly paid breadwinner who are either underemployed, disguised employed or simply unemployed.

The greatest crime and disaster that can ever happen, even greater than what Yolanda did, is when a man and woman blindly produce a child without the capacity to provide the basic needs of the child for survival and the tools of trade to prosper in life. It is inhuman. Should we not think as humans anymore? Or are we really like an animal who has very little power to think and has no free will?

Why is giving birth to a child that a couple cannot support a greater crime and disaster than Yolanda? It is because the victim, the poor child, is destined to live in misery all his life while the pains inflected by Yolanda will disappear in a matter of months or a few years.