What The Government Should Learn From Yolanda (Haiyan)

What should the Philippine government and all Filipinos learn from typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan)? 

A LOT!  

After super typhoon Yolanda ravaged Leyte and other provinces in Central Visayas, everyone was struck with unbelievable images of destruction, famine, death and chaos.  I was speechless at the first sight of people begging for food, cadavers on the roadside and on top of trees, mountains of debris, wrecked homes and buildings, impassable roads, and desperate people looting for survival. I could only pray for a speedy restoration of services, provision of relief goods and support for the victims.

A week has passed and the Philippine government is under fire for the very slow, retarded pace it is taking to scoop the victims out from their sorry and destitute state. The swift move of other countries to fly in numerous boxes/crates of food, clothing, medicines and other basic necessities including cash has rendered the President, his officials, and the military almost inutile in the eyes of the world. This is another blow to the government after the recent hearings and revelations regarding the scam purportedly manipulated by some government officials in cahoots with that blood-curdling heap of a fat swine, Napoles.

Yolanda's message is clear. 

Always be ready.  Don't underestimate what a seemingly simple typhoon can bring to your place.  It can rip you off and flatten your domain.  

Stop taking people's money! Government agencies and officials should render services to the people because they are the masters, they are the boss! After all, it is the people (taxpayers, most especially) who chip in their labor's fruits in the national coffers. 

Don't be divisive.  Unite! Drop any political affiliations in times like this. Moreover, do not blame especially those who are helpless.

Don't take advantage of other people's possessions and weaknesses.  Idiots have been reported raping and looting, running away with appliances and cannibalizing vehicles. 

Save lives, yes! But give the dead a decent burial even en masse.  The week-long stench of death inhabiting the afflicted places speaks of callousness on the part of authorities.

Have faith in God!  Don't relax. People tend to leave him in one corner while they enthrone materialism, greed, lust for power, and immorality at the center of their lives.

Knock all these in your heads, our heads lest another typhoon by another name visits us ( God forbid)


                                         copyright © Ritchelle Blanco Dejolde 2013                      

ROLL AWAY THE PORK BARREL, GRUNT NO MORE

I joined the Ilocos Pork O'clock Walk last August 27 at Laoag City's Aurora Park.  The crowd was not as big as the crowd in Manila and other parts of the Philippines but the voices and sentiments about the pork barrel scam were equally resounding.

I grew up hearing and reading about national leaders who have enriched themselves through thievery, dipping their sticky fingers into the national coffers and stashing millions of money in banks abroad. Such shameless accumulation of wealth from people's hard-earned money. These officials and their cohorts have multi-million mansions, a row of expensive vehicles, innumerable vaults of cash and jewelry, properties hidden under fictitious names or fronts.  The list is endless for these insatiable pigs.  I thought such despicable acts ended in the mid 80's but hey, we have more pigs grunting in this country.  What do they want to do with the Philippines, turn it into a pigsty?

 At the Walk,I wondered if there would be young Ilocanos as idealistic as my generation.  Well, there were some, and the sight of them holding placards and streamers denouncing the misuse of the pork barrel fund brought a dose of hope that things would be better soon. I know these kids (a few of them were my students, now in college) need to be more vigilant as we were (and still are).  

I was pleased to see those who have seen other struggles like me. My friends from the media, doctors, former political prisoners, social activists, educators, housewives, religious leaders.

After the nationwide outpouring of rage against the pork scam, investigation should not stop at the year 2009 but it should move on until 2012.  Succeeding years call for a more transparent government to weed out corruption. No biases. 

When I see infrastructure projects going on, I initially see them as signs of progress...but they can reek of the revolting smell of corruption.

At the Ilocos Pork O'clock Walk, I just had one line to say: "Let those pigs fry in their own stinky fat!"

Grunt no more.

copyright © Ritchelle Blanco Dejolde 2013 

pictures by SkyBlue copyright © Ritchelle Blanco Dejolde 2013

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Political Dynasties Suck Filipinos of Dynamism and Leave Them In A Static Rot

 Some politicians think they are God's gifts to Filipinos that they hang on to their positions until they are octogenarians.  When they feel their strength and wit are fading, they groom their sons and daughters to continue being public "servants". When their ties get sour and snap, they turn against each other as they scramble for their desired posts.  These clans claw and rant against each other...father vs. son, uncle vs. nephew, cousin vs. cousin, brother vs. sibling or what-have-you. There's mud slinging, name-calling, character assassination... MAYHEM!

The worst thing these dynasties can do is condition people to think that nobody else can honestly, sincerely, capably, incorruptibly SERVE.

Political dynasties in this part of the world suck the dynamism out of Filipinos.  They leave the electorate acting collectively based on their dictates, thus, stagnating them.  In this day and age of social networking, electronic gizmos and skyscrapers, people think they have truly advanced but no,they are in a static rot.  Unchanged power structures (especially those that are built by political clans who shuffle positions like musical chairs) leave no room for real change, evolution or positive breakthrough. There's just this stinking rot.

In the polls this May, we will see familiar names, familiar clans on the ballots. Which will we shade for approval?  Will we let some people suck us dry again?

                                                          

                           Copyright©Ritchelle Blanco Dejolde2013

                              

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