Last week, our country remembered and celebrated the first anniversary of supertyphoon Yolanda last year. The devastation revealed the way our government had prepared for the calamity and its reaction to the aftermath.
As early as a week before Yolanda hit, the weather bureau had already warned our countrymen that a supertyphoon was approaching. I remember Pag-asa warned us to prepare for its wrath. The national government was aware of its path, so much so that the administration sent Interior Secretary Mar Roxas and Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman to Tacloban City to help facilitate whatever the local governments in Leyte and Samar may need.
But when Yolanda finally arrived, everybody in – Leyte, northern Cebu and other parts of the country, apparently failed to foresee the typhoon’s strength. Many of us in Cebu thought that it would be just like 1990s typhoon Ruping which caused so much damage to Cebu City where many houses were left without roofs.
In Cebu City, many of us were ready for the worst because of the lessons learned from Ruping. We thought that supertyphoon Yolanda would directly hit the city.
I was at home in the garage of my brother when I witnessed Yolanda’s wind and rain. Luckily for me and my younger brother, we were able to listen to news updates on the car radio on how typhoon Yolanda devastated northern Cebu through the reports of different radio stations here in Cebu.
Listening to the coverage gave me goose bumps. I got more scared when a blackout occurred in the afternoon. Luckily, the next morning electricity was restored. By then I saw reports from Tacloban, Ormoc and northern Cebu and was terribly scared of the magnitude of damage.
We waited for the response of the national government to help the localities. Days passed and we were practically glued to the television, specifically CNN which gave a comprehensive and objective report. The days turned to weeks, and we saw the slow response of the national government to calls for help from places hardest hit by Yolanda.
We also witnessed how ABS-CBN news anchor, the wife of Roxas, Korina Sanchez, criticized CNN reporter Anderson Cooper for his reporting. Sanchez resented the critical reports against the government of Aquino and especially her husband.
We witnessed the slow response of the national government to the needs of the victims, especially in the distribution of relief items which was marred by allegation of ineptness.
Luckily, donations from foreign countries and nongovernment organizations started pouring in. Tacloban was also marred with massive looting that led many of its residents to try their very best to leave the city.
A year after Yolanda, we still hear about thousands of people still staying in tents and makeshift houses because national government aid apparently has not yet reached them.
President Aquino has just approved the budget for the rehabilitation of the places hit by Yolanda. Many had hoped that after the year that passed, the national government could make up and meet the dire needs of the survivors.
Unfortunately, the response of the national government is disappointing.
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