Re-posting Czarina Medinas thoughts. Yes, let us hold our officials accountable. Thank you for this, Tanya Hamada! I have passed the point of sadness. Here is where I am so far. 1. Yolanda’s been a tough b*tch, to say the least, but Mother Nature will throw what she can. You can’t blame her for the cruelty of her killing spree. We’re just gonna have to brave through it (here, Filipinos are exceptionally good at), and PREPARE (now there’s the question). 2. The Local Government Code clearly states that disaster preparedness and response is a function of local governments, as part of frontline service delivery and general welfare, aside from more recent laws and guidelines on disaster risk reduction and management. Accountability must be upheld. That goes to say that aside from rebuilding towns and industries and lives destroyed, local officials found wanting of the standards need to be dealt with accordingly. I will not buy apologies from elected officials. 3. Now is an excellent time to assess your local officials, as the litmus test has arrived for the quality of service they have provided. (a) How were your evacuation plans? Were they executed properly? How are your response operations? Quick? Slow? Excruciatingly frustrating? (b) How are your roads? Your structures? Were their construction plans designed to have these structures withstand these forces of nature? If the plans were not okay, then rebuild properly, with foresight that maybe there’s something worse than Yolanda. BUT if the plans were okay, were they constructed accordingly? Or do you smell corruption together with the scent of rotting corpses of the victims? These things are more horrifying to think about if the local officials are bred from political dynasties that have fed on public funds for the longest time. They have to be strongly reminded that they are replaceable if they do not perform. 4. It’s 2013. 2016 is a long time to go for efficient and effective local officials. If they can rebuild, they better do it exceptionally. But if they don’t, and they suck, BUT they still win in 2016, then the Filipino people truly deserve the cruel payback of their political choices. 5. I’ve always been critical about extending help during calamities because under the usual range of circumstances, constant relief response breeds dependency and complacency among people and institutions that are supposed to do the work. But this is a totally different need to consider. It’s a category to itself. HELP. And to share what I was told before by a mentor, “Give until it starts to hurt”.
Posted on: Sat, 09 Nov 2013 20:22:19 +0000
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