Desperate measures

When a catastrophe strikes, dire action is taken to quickly resolve it. In times where help seems scarce and resources are not too abundant, it comes down to desperate means in order to survive. Reports of looting, gunshots and even rape cases have been passed around since the passing of super-typhoon “Yolanda” through the Visayan region of the country. People have pointed out, especially over the internet, that the cause of this anarchy is due to how slow the relief operations are and that the government is giving minimal effort in aiding and controlling the affected areas. Many debates have sprung out from this recent disaster with topics ranging from critiques on the local government to whether shooting looters is acceptable, which I find extremely absurd. But through all this chaos, what is really to be done?

It is no question that Tacloban and the areas around it are in an extreme state of need. Looting has ranged from rations to appliances, gunshots are reportedly heard every night, rice is being sold for over one thousand pesos per sack and things aren’t getting any easier for anyone. Yet, of all things that should be done, the most downright preposterous thing I have observed is that people, instead of contributing or donating for those affected is that they, instead, participate in online debates on whether who really is to blame for the damage in the region.

Firstly, you can’t blame anyone. It’s the storm, that’s what caused the damages. It is not due to the area being unprepared, or officials not informing its citizens. “Yolanda,” as powerful as it was, is the cause of the damage and no matter how prepared Tacloban was or any other area, we have to accept that the storm really was that powerful and all we can do now is deal with the damages at assure those affected get a fair chance in rebuilding their lives.

Secondly, with regards to looting. It should not be a surprise that people will resort to desperate measures to get by right after a disaster. With slow relief operations and a vast number of victims, can you really blame them? When you have nothing to lose, what can stop you from doing it? We can say that “I wouldn’t do that if it were me,” but would you really? You’ll never really know what you’ll do until the point when you’re actually in the situation; so don’t even dare say that a good solution is to shoot the looters down. What good would come out of it? Adding more gunshots to an already chaotic state would result to even more chaotic circumstances. In all honesty, I don’t see a proper remedy when it comes to the looters. Best thing I can think of is talking some sense into them but that seems a bit bleak and impossible considering the situation they are in. Hopefully, they will fizzle out when relief operations have fully taken place and there will be no need for them to do it anymore. But that is, again, an assumption that is open to question if relief operations don’t pace up.

Lastly, debating about it and blaming the government especially over the internet won’t provide any help nor resolve to whatever conflict you got yourself involved in on some thread on Facebook. We need to be reminded that we live in a third world country. Yes, there are some aspects of our country that maybe considered “world class” but we need to realize that as a total the Philippines is a nation of multiple struggles, financially to name one. All of you who read this are aware of the level of corruption in our nation so don’t be surprised that even in times of need things won’t turn out as you would have expected. Relief operations are minimal because funds are minimal. It is of no use to start blaming government institutions, though despite corruption, they are giving an effort. People are always so obsessed to put the blame on someone regarding a problem that solving the problem doesn’t even matter to them.

Whether it is due to government neglect or whatever else, in situations like these, the whole is worth more than the sum of its components. We need to stop looking for people to blame, to condemn, to shame; what does matter now is giving as much as we can to help our fellow Filipinos. Many private institutions have already begun their own drive to aid the devastated areas. De La Salle Philippines for one has a donation drive operating right now in DLSU, if you still don’t know what to do to help the Yolanda victims, just walk on over to the North Conservatory, helping out there is better than winning over some comment war online. We can debate about what had happened for days, weeks even months after this disaster, but all that matters now is to do whatever we can to help. Donate, volunteer, help your fellow Filipinos.