TRIBUNE: THE CZAR OF DISASTER
MANILA, AUGUST 9, 2011 (TRIBUNE) INSIDE CONGRESS Charlie Manalo - Over the weekend, an eager-beaver lawmaker called on President Noynoy Aquino to assume the role of disaster management czar.
While acknowledging the fact that the law, Republic Act 10121, or the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010, categorically names the Defense secretary as chairman of the National Disk Reduction and Management Council, this lawmaker claims the key and decisive disaster management player is the President.
As the take-charge guy in every calamitous situation, the disaster management czar, the lawmaker said, will have to address four major areas: disaster preparedness, disaster mitigation, emergency response, and post-disaster rehabilitation of victims.
He then called on Congress to look into the possibility of providing the President with additional powers to become the disaster management czar, particularly post-disaster rehabilitation of victims, which is considered crucial in disaster management.
The President then could be empowered to manage disaster risk reduction and operations during crisis situation, provide better disaster mapping nationwide, and identify all areas prone to disasters, and the adoption of disaster preparedness programs at grassroots level.
Good grief! Where was this lawmaker during the height of the flooding in Mindanao? And was he listening to Noy when was praising to high heavens Pagasa for its supposed remarkable performance in weather forecasting just a day before tropical storm "Juaning" wrought havoc to the country?
Maybe this congressman had overlooked the fact that former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Arroyo left P50 million for the rehabilitation of the Mindanao River basin before he relinquished the presidency to Noynoy.
However, for reasons only known to him, Noy failed to implement the project resulting in massive flooding in Mindanao a couple of months back, displacing hundreds of thousands of families damaging hundreds of millions worth of properties.
During his second State of the Nation Address, Noy was all praises for the Pagasa Chief Nathaniel Servando, whom he personally handpicked, for a supposed sterling job on weather forecasting, the very opposite of what he did to former Pagasa chief who was forced to resign after the President berated him for failing to meet his standard of weather forecasting.
The very next day, even as Servando had yet to savor the sweetness of the praises coming from the very lips of his benefactor, Juaning struck, which caught both Noy and Servando flatfooted.
How then can we entrust the disaster management to this man who disregards the welfare of the people by rescinding contracts for flood control projects simply because they were initiated by his predecessor?
How can we entrust our fate during calamities to a man who puts his full trust and confidence to someone with regard to weather forecasting but who fails miserably in his job?
This man, Noy, doesn't know how to handle disaster or emergencies, be it natural or man-made!
Who could forget that infamous hostage-taking incident in Luneta when Noy couldn't even pinpoint who was to take in charge of the situation!
But a much bigger disaster Noy couldn't handle is himself.
Upon assuming the presidency last year, Noy has yet to embark on concrete economic program that would at least ease the worsening woes of the Filipinos.
Instead of coming up with an honest-to-goodness roadmap, Noynoy, has extended his election campaign, still lambasting at his predecessor every time he gets to the microphone.
As if on cue, his subordinates had also taken the persecution of the Arroyos to the hilt, even forcing their subordinates to come up with false testimonies, which unfortunately, in one incident, pushed a Development Bank of the Philippines lawyer to commit suicide after being coerced by his superior to link the former First Family to behest loans, effective abandoning their primary purpose of existence, which is to serve the people.
And while not lifting a hand on this issue, by telling his subordinates to leave the matter of investigating alleged anomalies to the proper government agencies, Noy won't even act on recommendations by his own people to sanction his KKKs (kaibigan, kaklase, kabarilan) for alleged abuse of authorities or negligence, including LTO Chief Virgina Torres and DILG Usec Rico Puno.
And what have we heard from Noy, when Communications Secretary Ricky Carandang was rumored to have asked his assistant secretary to sign a purchase order for laptop computers without the benefit of a proper bidding?
Noy doesn't know how to handle these situations. Or he just doesn't want to.
Being the biggest disaster himself, entrusting the disaster management to Noynoy would be totally uncalled for as it would only be useless.
What on earth was this lawmaker thinking when he aired his call?
So much for being a brown-noser.
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Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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