CNN

The Deluge and Its Apocalyptic Aftermath (Conclusion)

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by Atty. Salvador Panelo

ANDERSON Cooper’s commentary and observation on the Tacloban City situation went viral on the internet receiving a biting reaction from the famed and feisty ABC,-CBN Broadcaster Korina Sanchez, who happened to be the wife of Cabinet member and DILG Secretary Mar Roxas, who, together with Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, is in charge of the relief operations.
Korina Sanchez retorted to Anderson Cooper: “Anderson Cooper is not aware of what he is taking about.”

That reaction also went viral, too, in the internet.

In his CNN program, Anderson Cooper riposted to Korina Sanchez’s reaction:
“Mrs. Sanchez is welcome to go there in Tacloban – and I would urge her to go there. I don’t know if she has but her husband’s the interior minister. I’m sure he can arrange a flight.”

Of course the exchange between a local and an international broadcaster caught the attention of netizens and CNN & ABS-CBN viewers, and they expressed their sentiments on the exchange. Some siding with Anderson Cooper, while others took the side of Korina Sanchez.

My our son-lawyer Salvador A. Panelo, Jr., who could not contain his sentiment on the Anderson Cooper-Korina Sanchez tiff, as well as with those criticizing the government for its inadequate preparation to neutralize the effects of the hauler typhoon – and the national governments apparent slow response to the victims, posted in his Facebook, and in my Twitter account, the following statement:

“I agree with Korina Sanchez that Anderson Cooper does not know what he is talking about.

Criticism of government response to major natural or environmental disasters is universal. The US government response to Hurricane Katrina in 2006 was a failure of leadership. “Even Japan with their much-vaunted reputation for organization was criticized for its slow response to the earthquake and tsunami in 2011, and the consequent Fukishima leak. We should keep this in mind when assessing the performance of our own government. We should also keep in mind that while Mr. Cooper may very well be genuinely concerned about the pace of government, response, he is also very much in the business of selling news.

I firmly believe that our government is doing its best to help the victims of Yolanda. This is not inconsistent with the fact that its best may not be good or fast enough for everyone affected given the magnitude of the destruction and the various limitations and issues that mere observers can not fully appreciate.

Let us not forget that significant government resources are possibly still tied up to Bohol and Zamboanga.

I do think that P-Noy could have better explained why the government response could not come sooner and why air cannot be distributed faster. Let us just hope that that was more of a failure of speech and rhetoric, rather than leadership. We can take him to task for that later. For now, our unfortunate Visayan brothers and sisters need us to heed the advice we wished P-Noy had followed: stop pointing fingers. Let us help how we can help our government and let us follow through!”

This writer’s take on the matter on the Anderson-Korina exchange is that both of them are correct. Anderson Cooper, as CNN correspondent reporting live on the ground, was speaking on the basis of what his eyes could see. In his limited view of a portion of Tacloban City he formed an opinion – factually accurate – but not necessarily true for the entire devastated eastern Visayas, particularly the Leyte and Samar provinces that bore the brunt of Typhoon Yolanda – hence Korina Sanchez was also correct in saying that Anderson Cooper was giving an inaccurate situationer in Tacloban – because as wife of the DILG Secretary, she has direct access to the information with regard to the extent of government’s response to the victim’s plight – as well as she had communication link with other reporters doing their investigative and reporting work in other areas of Tacloban City – and the rest of the typhoon–ravaged places in the Visayas – not to mention the fact that she was herself in Ormoc City, another city reeling from the effects of the typhoon doing her reportorial job as a journalist as well as doing relief work and necessarily she has an expanded view of the realities in the relief operations and the government’s response to the victims.

As correctly pointed out by this columnist’s son, this is not the time for finger-pointing of blame – rather this is the moment for everyone to do his share – and to the best of his capacity and ability extend his help in responding to the victims of this latest tragedy in the Philippines.

During the last few days, the government’s response has considerably scaled up – and there is now an organized and faster relief works.

Meanwhile, there has been an unprecedented outpouring of help from twenty eight (28) countries sending huge amount of cash, hundreds of thousands of relief goods, as well as doctors and nurses, to the typhoon affected areas. Organizations like the Red Cross and other private organizations have poured in and combined their resources to give succor to the victims. Private persons and family members went in droves to the DSWD and the ABS-CBN warehouses, lending their manpower to do repacking work of relief goods.

Filipinos, here and abroad, have all come together and raised funds for the victims – and rehabilitation of the damaged communities.

Even the United Nations has stepped in and lend its enormous resources to help the tragic victims.
UN Undersecretary General Valerie Amos, who is in the country for the UN’s relief operations has expressed satisfaction on the much improved distribution of relief goods as well as her amazement at the spirit and resilience of Filipinos who face a herculean reconstruction job. Said she:

“I continue to be struck by the resilience and spirit of the Filipino people. Everywhere I visited, I saw families determined to rebuild their lives under the most difficult conditions.

So people are, of course, to an intent traumatized by what happened. They have lost loved ones, but at the same time they’re trying to look to the future.

I saw images of daily life amid scenes of devastation. Women either cooking in make shift kitchen or doing laundry and men clearing debris and scavenging for materials to rebuild their destroyed homes.”

Evaluating the flow of aid, the UN Undersecretary-General gave the following observation:

“Everyday aid efforts gather pace with the systems getting through to more people. Significant food and medical assistance has been provided and water services, as well as limited communications services, restored.”

Per its estimation, the United Nations reports that 1.1 million have received food aid since the disaster struck – and only less than the 2.5 million affected residents have yet to receive food aid. Amos noted that “water services have been restored in Capiz, Northern Cebu and Roxas City, with 43 medical teams from various international groups – and 44 local – providing medical services to the survivors.”

The United Nations added in its report that about “5 million children in disaster areas are in need of emergency shelter, protection and psychological support.”

Amos noted further that “there is a need to establish safe places for children given that 90 percent of day care centers in ravaged towns and cities were destroyed.”

The “spirit and resilience” of the Filipinos did not escape the observation of the Vatican in Rome.
Msgr. Paul Tighe, Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, who is in Manila to attend the Catholic Social Media Summit at the Colegio San Juan de Letran, told the reporters:

“We want to express our admiration for the spirit of the Filipino people. We have been seeing terrible devastation but we have also been witnessing the extraordinary cure, consideration and generosity of your own people.”

Everything shall come to pass. Hopefully, the national and local governments have learned their lessons well following the aftermath of the deluge – and will be more prepared and cope with typhoons of similar intensity that are sure to come given the global warming and climate change.

The eastern Visayas will surely rise from its ruins – and there is no stopping it from resurrecting itself from its ashes.
There is however a grim reality that is inescapable – and that is that the thousands of inhabitants of the ravaged Eastern Visayas, are poverty stricken. Their houses or what appears to be houses, are made of cheap and weak construction materials that can be easily blown over by super-typhoons in the like of Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) – and torn to pieces.

Rebuilding and reconstructing those inferior structures will not provide their security and safety from the angry forces of nature. And every super-typhoon that comes will repeat the same nightmare of destruction and death.

And such probability and eventuality of extensive destruction in lives and property is not limited to the Eastern Visayas section of our country – but to the entire archipelago as well – as indeed the majority of our countrymen are living in object poverty – and in hand to mouth existence.

No amount of relief goods and rehabilitation work coming from within and without the country, can alter the status in life of these Filipinos. There must be an overhauling of the social structures of our society to effect the even distribution of the nation’s wealth and the means of production.

Hopefully, the gods of destiny will anoint men and women of pure heart and possessed of unselfish love that will cause the radical change of our political and social structure – before the downtrodden masses rise in righteous indignation and revolt and destroy the existing order.
***
For Feedback:
E-mail: salvadorpanelo@rocketmail.com
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Twitter: attysalvadorpanelo
Text to: 0918-862- 7777

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FURY

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by Ronald Roy

IF English dramatist William Congreve (1670-1729) were alive today, he probably would apply to Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago (MDS), alleged PDAF scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles (JLN) and Supertyphoon Yolanda his most famous quote (The Mourning Bride): “Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell to fury like a woman scorned.”

The much-awaited appearance of JLN before the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee (SBRC) last November 7 turned out to be a big disappointment for viewers and listeners nationwide. For hours they held their breath — from the moment she stepped into the senate session hall escorted by a horde of policemen garbed in full battle gear, until adjournment — expecting holocaustic entertainment, but nothing like that happened.

I was amused for the first hour or so, then I got bored. Sure, I admit I was out for entertainment, but heck, I thought that a bloody confrontation between JLN and all of them was what we needed to be set free by the truth.
It’s baloney that the SBRC Chairman, Sen. Teofisto “TG” Guingona, Jr., purposefully convened the investigation “in aid of legislation”. But I do not blame him for having done so. Otherwise, he would have been criticized for having lent refuge to his confreres undergoing trial, including himself. For him it was a damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don’t dilemma which would give him flack either way.

As for the forthcoming SBRC investigation of JLN’s husband, Jaime Napoles, there is no reason to expect any enlightenment coming therefrom, as he will be at least as clever a witness as his wife, if his being a PMA co-graduate and RAM buddy of Sen. Gringo Honasan is any indication. But the scheduled hearing will proceed just the same, the utter waste of people’s money and the investigation’s futility notwithstanding.

What I would have wanted to see and hear was a no-holds-barred SBRC session involving a furiously questioning MDS, a furiously answering JLN, and other senators furiously defending their integrity, such as in the following scenario.

After JLN has taken her oath to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, Chair TG allows MDS to fire the first salvo. MDS: “Do you know who I am?” JLN: “Yes, you are Sen. Miriam Defensor…Defensor…what’s your surname na ba?” MDS: “Don’t play games with me!” JLN: “I’m sorry that I cannot remember your name. But why do you ask me, ma’am, don’t you know your own name?” MDS: “Hoy, buang ka, ha?!” JLN: “Buang ka rin!!” MDS: “Gaga ka! I can have you cited for contempt, and that means we can jail you!!” JLN: “E, kung hindi ka naman mas gaga, sa kulungan na nga ako nakatira!!” MDS: “Hoy, if you do not stop your kabastusan, I will shoot you!!” JLN (taking off her bullet-proof jacket):”Go ahead, shoot me!!”

Instantly, security details have completely surrounded JLN with firearms aimed at MDS, the senators and the gallery. Pandemonium ensues. Everyone is screaming and taking cover, Chair TG fires a 45 cal. pistol in the air, and order is gradually restored. Session is suspended for 15 minutes, after which he yields the interrogation to a lady colleague (LC).

LC: “Can you tell us if anyone here has in any way diverted his pork barrel allocation to his pocket?” JLN: “Yes, ma’am, you. I personally gave you your kickback in your bedroom.” LC: “What?! Let me remind you you’re under oath!!” JLN: “Precisely, that’s why I am telling the truth, ma’am.” LC: “$&@%#!!!” JLN: “$&@%# also!!!” Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

I am certain that if the foregoing imaginary scenario had happened, the general public would have appreciated a clearer picture of the pork scam. More importantly, it would have quickened the pace of imprisoning guilty parties. Incidentally, some people suggest the PDAF and DAP scandals will continue to wreak havoc on us for karmic reasons.

Hmmm…I wonder if the fury of Yolanda, the Category 5 Supertyphoon, is karmic.(In Hindu and Buddhist theory, karma is the sum of a person’s actions in this and previous states of existence, viewed as deciding the fate in future existences). How then can Yolanda be explained?

What foreign experts say

Courtesy of the Inquirer, WASHINGTON — Nature and man together cooked up the disaster in the Philippines. Geography, meteorology, poverty, shoddy construction, a booming population and xxx climate change combine to make the Philippines the nation most vulnerable to killer typhoons, according to several scientific studies, xxx and Supertyphoon “Yolanda” (international name: Haiyan) was one mighty storm.

What P-Noy says

Tacloban City was ruled by anarchists after Yolanda battered it. Vandals and looters smashed open stores and the San Miguel Brewery plant to take everything they could get their hands on. Clearly, there was a breakdown of law and order — a “lawless violence” condition that justified martial law under his mother’s Constitution.
Well, P-Noy is reported to have said to a local city leader, who proposed the imposition of martial law, ” Ha?! Bakit, buhay ka pa naman, e! “, thereby betraying a childish bias against anything reminiscent of Ferdinand E. Marcos.

What a reader says

Expressing the sentiments of many citizens, a reader texted: “I’m ashamed to be a Filipino. A CNN team reached Leyte ahead of our national officials by coming one day before Yolanda struck! Then something extraordinary happened: The President disputed CNN’s estimate of 10,000 people dead with a more accurate count of around 2000 dead. 10,000 fatalities would have drawn a lot of assistance, but he chose to be honest!!

On balance, you’re okay, Sir!
(http://musingsbyroy.wordpress.com | 09186449517 | @ronald8roy | #musingsbyroy)

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Storm Surge

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by Raymund L. Junia

I GREW up in the biggest barangay of this small town, Tolosa, Leyte. This barangay, and the town proper, faces the Pacific Ocean. In our side of the country, a typhoon is no stranger. We’re used to typhoons. But this does not mean, we neglect any typhoon’s fury. I find the debate on storm surge  interesting, the term not being understood. One journalist described it as a new phenomenon. Ted Failon, who comes from Leyte, admits he does not understand the meaning of storm surge. That really surprised me.

In my elementary days in the barrio, I remember every time there was a typhoon, we had our own “coast guards”. They took turns in watching the sea level and ready to issue a “bandillo” (public warning) on the rising of the sea level and imminent flooding of the barangay. There being no satellite warning on TV then, this was the method of early warning to prevent deaths from big waves and rising sea levels—a storm surge.

That many lives were spared and saved from Yolanda’s fury in my town, I think this primitive early warning system did it. Although folks way back home say San Miguel saved lives in the middle of Yolanda’s strike. On San Miguel saving the town, I very much agree. Our patron saint had always come to the rescue of this town. Another interesting fact is, until this writing, people in most Yolanda-ravaged areas are still asking where is government?

The dead littered the streets of Tacloban and nearby towns until the sixth day after the typhoon. Relief has not reached barangays and towns just 20 kilometers from Tacloban City. Relief was active only in media but zero at the ground. Media was well managed but not the relief operations. Media was managed not to tell the truth. Malacañang’s problem was that it could not manage foreign media like CNN, ABC news and others. They could not control social media also.

How media was managed could be seen from the reaction of ABS-CBN channel 2 over reports by CNN of absence of government at ground Zero. Korina Sanchez embarrassed herself in her refuting reports by CNN’s Anderson Cooper. She was swarmed in social media by accusations of her impartiality in defense of Pres. Aquino leadership and for lying bare faced on the true situation in Leyte.

Easily, Korina Sanchez stood out as a disgrace to Philippine journalism.

CNN is the new shining example if not the hero in true journalism and Channel 2 lost much of its credibility.

Enough lies please.

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THE BATTLE FOR TRUTH : Korina Sanchez vs Anderson Cooper

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by the Editors

“SOMEBODY slap Korina Sanchez. Because of her reaction, Anderson had to explain himself for those tweets. He (Cooper) only reported what he saw!” This is just one of the many tweets now flooding social media over the recent exchange between CNN’s Anderson Cooper and local newshen Korina Sanchez concerning the handling of news reports in the wake of super-typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan).

Cooper was in town as part of CNN’s coverage of typhoon Yolanda. Reporting from Tacloban City on the “difficulties and shortcomings of local relief efforts” Cooper said: “You would expect perhaps to see a feeding center that had been set up five days after the storm. We haven’t seen that not in this area. Some food is being brought to people here at the airport, some water being distributed, but these are very, very difficult conditions for the people here on the ground and it’s not clear how much longer it can continue like this. Something’s got to give.”

A lot of things did break from ground zero: reports of a rising death toll and the tales of frustration and desperation of survivors who have resorted to looting and everything else for the sake of survival and self-preservation. There is death and destruction everywhere and Cooper, like other foreign journalists, were simply reporting events as they saw it unfolding from ground zero.

Quick Defense

But here comes Koring Sanchez with the temerity to hit Cooper for his “erroneous reports”. Korina, wife of Interior and Local Secretary Mar Roxas II and ex-flame of President Noynoy Aquino, was quick to give her rebuttal in defense of Mar and the PNoy administration. In her morning radio show “Rated Korina” aired over AM radio dzMM, Wednesday morning, Nov 13, she had a blind item for her listeners describing a “blonde reporter ng CNN” whom she claims are giving reports that are “mali-mali,”. “Mukhang hindi niya alam ang sinasabi niya (It seems he does not know what he is saying),” Korina added.

While Anderson Cooper is definitely not blonde-haired—it was clear that Korina was referring to the CNN newsman, but she did not have the balls to name Cooper outright. Perhaps this was Korina’s interpretation of extending professional courtesy to a comrade journalist.

The exchange did not end there.

Aside from his report in CNN, Copper also posted several tweets via his account @AC360 describing what he sees in Tacloban, which is one of the most affected areas in the Visayas by typhoon Yolanda. Cooper said that there’s no “real evidence of organized recovery” in the area and that the people in Tacloban “deserve better than what they have gotten.”

Anderson, host of CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360˚ also tweeted “Everywhere you go you find people searching for their lost loved ones” and “Philippine military personnel are cleaning up the area around the airport.. first time we’re seeing this”. And because of Korina’s reactions, Cooper was forced to clarify and explain his statements
The Anderson-Sanchez tiff stirred different reactions from the netizens, but most were irked by the reactions of Korina and her ill-treatment of a fellow journalist. Many who took Cooper’s side said Korina had no right to question Cooper who was reporting on site while she was dishing out commentary from the comforts of a television studio.

Whether a knee-jerk reaction or acting under instructions from Mar, Korina’s reactions served only to magnify the incompetence of the government in handling the crisis. And, to a greater extent, she has made herself a target of the anger of over half a million Filipinos affected by typhoon Yolanda.

To the typhoon-ravaged, Korina is the liar—a puppet of this government and its ploy of dishing out candy-coated lies.

“Sanchez probably thought that her husband’s directing traffic on the streets of Tacloban could be considered a rescue operation. Thank goodness no one takes her seriously nowadays…especially since she hasn’t even been to the disaster zone,” said one online commentary.

Apparently caving in to the online comments, Korina got on a plane Thursday to report live for ABS-CBN from Ormoc, Leyte. She could have gone to Tacloban to get a full reality check.

Battle for Truth

The Korina Sanchez vs Anderson Cooper affair is just the tip of the ongoing battle for the truth about the real scenario in typhoon ravaged areas. On one side are international journalists reporting on site and on the other are people from Malacanang—including President Aquino—who are giving much rosier updates from a comfortable distance.

While Cooper was reporting from Tacloban City, President Aquino was giving a reassuring report in an interview with Christiane Amapour, aired that very same day also over CNN. Receiving some ambiguous responses from PNoy, Amapour kept his composure and did not press further for proof of progress in the rescue and recovery efforts.

While the President reported that a sense of normalcy has returned to the typhoon-hit areas, Cooper’s live report showing actual footage from the ruins of Tacloban airport painted a far grimmer picture.
It is quite depressing to hear Cooper say that it is not really clear to him who is in charge of the Philippine side of operations as it shows the lack of leadership in a time of crisis. As another reporter from ABC News claims: the Philippine government has become paralized in the face of disaster.

And for a local news anchor like Sanchez to go on the defensive makes matters even stranger for outsiders like Cooper and other foreign observers.

Japan Tsunami

Days after Japan was hit by an earthquake and a tsunami, Cooper and other foreign journalists were also there to report on the ensuing activity after the tragedy.

“When I was in Japan, right after the tsunami there two years ago, within a day or two, you had Japanese defense forces going out, carving up cities into grids and going out on foot looking for people, walking through the wreckage. We have not seen that here in any kind of large-scale operation,” Cooper reported then.
At Villamor Airbase, main staging area of the relief flights to the disaster zone, foreign journalists reported that the base seemed to be “operating at half speed” with no real sense of urgency.

The US Marines have swung into action, as expected. But there are only hundreds of them right now and they must first coordinate with the Philippine government before they can swing into action.

The United Nations and other countries are sending relief through the United Nations Food Programme. With the government involved in the pork barrel scandal, reports say that US Marines escorting the UN relief have been instructed to keep government officials and politicians “from touching the relief goods.”
How low can our image as a people get?

Exposing, yet again, the incompetence of the PNoy administration, the people want somebody to turn to in this hour of great need.

If PNoy fails to meet this latest challenge, it may take more than a Korina Sanchez to save his administration.

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