A Tale of Disaster in the Philippines

The recent devastating typhoon that hit central Philippines has illicited international response and pooled resources from different countries and individuals, much like the earthquake in Haiti and tsunami in Japan. Too much have been said about the enormity of the typhoon and the effects it brought to the affected. My heart bleeds. Blaming the Philippine government's slow response was the order of the day. The social networking sites have become a platform of motivating more help and of course discussions and bickering on what went wrong, who to blame and what should have been done. Facebook and Twitter have become a stage for heated debates and surely Filipinos don't run out of opinions to say online. Filipinos seem to be good at making their points of view highlighted online than face to face.

A truck lies on it's side after the typhoon in Borbon town, Northern Cebu, Philippines. Photo by C. Baldicantos

If you are caught on the other side of the debate and who doesn't join the blame-game and instead explaining that this catastrophe was just so enormous even the strongest state will be caught off-guard, you always lose the discussion. So much so you are branded as an apologist for the government even if you also don't like the government so much, past or present.

Three days before Typhoon Haiyan (locally known as Yolanda), Philippine President Benigno Aquino III made an appeal on national television to affected areas that the typhoon could be the worst ever to land in the country. He warned that wave surges can go as high at 5 to 7 meters and ordered all local government units to do all necessary means to evacuate to safety residents in most vulnerable areas. He also dispatched his military chief of staff and interior secretary to oversee preparations for the landfall and relief and recovery operations.

Fallen trees and electric posts block the main roads in Daanbantayan town in Northern Cebu, Philippines. Photo by C. Baldicantos

The afternoon before the typhoon struck, it was calm, the sun was shining and no signs that a strong typhoon number 5 was on its way. Residents of Leyte, the province mostly hit, went through their day, many showed reluctance in leaving their houses to go to evacuation centers. One local government official said it was not easy to tell the people to leave their houses. Forcing them would mean putting a gun on their head. What the local government did was just to convince as many as they can to voluntarily move out.

The epic typhoon only lasted a maximum of three hours according to some accounts. Winds started to blow early in the morning and then came rains and then came stronger winds and storm surges that blew almost everything away. The country and the resilient people that have dealt with almost 20 typhoons every year were caught offguard. Perhaps being caught offguard was not even the appropriate word. It just struck like nobody expected it. A coastal community was flattened, debris were lying around and the destruction and death was beyond belief. Leyte was no more, one survivor said upon seeing her environment and smelling the stench of dead bodies on the streets.

Guiauyan Town, Eastern Samar, after Typhoon Haiyan. Photo by C. Baldicantos 

More than 24 hours have passed and it seemed the response from the other side of the world was nowhere in sight. Electricity was cut off, communications line were down and people were desperate for water, food and clothing. Even before disaster response came, there were reports of looting from survivors who were desperate to last a day. It was only after two days that help came trickling in via the small port and partly functional airport.

Photos by C. Baldicantos

Why did it take more than two days to reach the affected areas? One explanation is geography. The Philippines is an archipelago of more than 7,000 islands. The most affected areas were part of the chain of islands that were not easy to reach when a typhoon of this magnitude happened. It is true that Leyte is is just 6 hours by boat from Cebu but to clear the port also took time. The airport was also devastated that it had to be restored to functionality so helicopters and aircrafts can land safely. There roads connecting to the mainland of nearby provinces were completely unpassable due to debris lying around. The ones expected to help in the first level of recovery operations, the local government units' disaster coordinating councils were non-functional because they too were affected. Another explanation is the lack of facilities of the government to deal with this huge natural disaster. The Philippine military only had a handful of C130 planes and helicopters to ferry goods, medicines and other important survival kits to the affected areas. That is why the early response of the US military, bringing in a ship that has everything (from filtration system to floating hospital) and air assets was very much welcome. Without such help from other advanced countries, the death toll would soar and the country would be as miserable as Burma during the Typhoon Bopha.

A Philippine Coast Guard ship looks for bodies near Bantayan Island, Cebu, Philippines days after Typhoon Haiyan made a landfall. Photo by C. Baldicantos

There's much more to say about the disaster response and how the Philippine government reacted, but for now... I believe the survivors need more than what netizens on Facebook and Twitter have been complaining about.