The good, the bad, and Yolanda

PerryScope
By Perry Diaz

Super typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda was the worst typhoon in recorded history, weather experts say. Indeed, the loss of life and property was staggering. With 6,092 deaths, 27,665 injured, and 1,779 missing, it would take a massive effort to rebuild the lives of the survivors of the biggest storm of all time.

The immediate task is to provide food, shelter, and security to more than 3.4 families or 16.1 million people who were affected by the super typhoon, with 4.1 million people displaced in 588 municipalities and 57 cities. And with more than half a million homes destroyed and another 600,000 homes damaged, it would take a generation to rehabilitate and reconstruct the devastation caused by Yolanda.

The good guys

Operation Damayan

It didn’t take too long for the international community to respond to the calamity. Led by the United States, many countries donated funds and tons of food and other necessities to the survivors. The U.S. Navy sent the USS George Washington Carrier Strike Group to Leyte and Samar to deliver food, water, medicine, and other supplies. Australia sent airplanes to help in the evacuation efforts. And the United Kingdom deployed the destroyer HMS Daring and aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious to help in the international relief operations. Even China, after staying on the sideline for over a week, sent a hospital ship.

Vietnamese boat people (File Photo)

But it was the spontaneous efforts of various non-government groups that made the difference. One group that stood out among the others is the Vietnam War refugees who fled Vietnam in 1975 when the Viet Cong overran the country. Nowhere to go, thousands of Vietnamese crammed into boats and left, unsure where to find safety. They found a safe haven across the vast South China Sea in the Philippines where the Philippine government put them up in rehabilitation centers in Bataan and Palawan.

After several years of rehabilitation in the Philippines, the “boat people” — as the Vietnamese refugees came to be known – found a permanent host country, the United States, where they resettled permanently.

Thirty-eight years later, the Vietnamese had a rare opportunity to repay a debt of gratitude to the Filipino people. Representatives of the Ben Em Dang Co Ta Foundation, the Saigon Broadcasting Television Network (SBTN), and the Vietnamese Refugees for Philippines (VR4P) went to the Philippine Embassy in Washington, DC and donated more than $440,000 to relief efforts for the victims of super typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda.

AP File Photo

Other groups helped, too. A group of South Koreans in Sacramento, California held a fundraising event that generated more than $5,000 for the “Yolanda” victims. In Davis, California, former Davis mayor Ruth Asmundson, a Filipino-American, partnered with the local Rotary Club and raised more than $37,000 in one event – a luncheon. In Roseville, California, the Thunder Valley Indian Casino donated $60,000 to “Yolanda” relief efforts. In Sacramento, a group spearheaded by Eskwela Natin, the first Filipino-American cultural school in Northern California, is holding a fundraiser on December 29, 2013, featuring the world-renowned University of the Philippines Concert Chorus (UPCC). The group is hoping to raise $10,000 for the “Yolanda” victims.

The bad guys

A television news report shows much-needed supplies on sale in affluent parts of the capital Manila

And then came the bad guys. An article in a British newspaper, Daily Mail, last December 17 headlined, “Philippines aid scandal: Food flown in from Britain ends up in shops hundreds of miles from typhoon,” which reported the following anomalies:

1) “Supplies have turned up on shelves of shops in the capital Manila.” The report says that the supplies were siphoned off and sold for profit by corrupt local officials.

2) “Equipment bought with UK donations has been locked up in warehouses.” The report says that emergency supplies delivered by military helicopters have turned up on the shelves of shops in affluent districts of the capital Manila – hundreds of miles from the disaster zone.

3) “Rice and other food is being stockpiled and not given to needy.” The report says that shelter equipment purchased using British donations has been locked up in government warehouses and stockpiled alongside rice and other food intended for victims of last month’s catastrophe.

The report says that charitable organizations were concerned that not all donations reached the disaster area. It says that the Disaster Emergency Committee (DEC) — an umbrella group representing 14 UK charities – is concerned about reports that not all the £60 million of aid given by British charities reached those who needed it most.

Yolanda

Stories of massive thefts caught the attention of the media. The Daily Mail told the story of a disc jockey who received death threats for trying to expose local officials who were stealing aid in Eastern Samar. “I’ve seen the deliveries arrive and I’ve seen them disappear,” said the disc jockey who originally came from Scotland and is married to a Filipina. He claimed that only a tiny percentage of the aid reached the typhoon victims. Television stations in Manila collaborated his claim that supplies were diverted to Manila. Fearing for his life, he and his family fled and are now hiding in Manila.

President Aquino swears Ping Lacson as “Rehab Czar”

Recently, President Benigno “P-Noy” Aquino III appointed former senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson as presidential assistant for rehabilitation and recovery or “Rehab Czar.” But no sooner had Ping warmed up to his new job than some local officials started to take advantage of the plight of Yolanda’s victims.

Indeed, Yolanda had brought out the best in people, the good guys. But sad to say, she also brought out the worst among us, the bad guys. They might get away with their evil deeds but they can’t escape the Law of Karma. As someone once said, “Nothing escapes the Law of Karma. You get from the world what you give to the world.” And as for Yolanda, well, she’d come back again under another name to test the resilience of man. And each time, too, the bad guys would rear their ugly heads. But at the end of the day, the good would prevail over evil.

(PerryDiaz@gmail.com)