PHNO-HL: FB NEWSCOOP: CALAMITY CAMPAIGNING IS SO EEEWWW! THUMBS DOWN!

FB NEWSCOOP: CALAMITY CAMPAIGNING IS SO EEEWWW!
THUMBS DOWN!
MANILA, AUGUST 11, 2012 (INQUIRER) Thank goodness for Facebook, which
has alerted people to every little irregularity, anomaly and failure in taste
that publicity-hungry politicos are guilty of.
Latest, very distasteful case in point: calamity campaigning.

Yes, some politicians were actually using the distribution of relief goods
this week to promote themselves! How exquisitely epal is that?

Among the pictures that have been going viral are a truckful of "Jobo Rice,"
distributed by Zambales congressional candidate Jobo Magsaysay.
How's that for starting early? He's running for a seat for the 1st district
of Zambales in 2013.
And in case you want to get even more irritated, yes, he's the son of Rep.
Mitos Magsaysay—you know, the anti-RH Bill proponent who said "Heaven must be
crying" over the support for the bill.

Masbate politicians take inappropriate campaigning to a fishy new level.
And then, there are the cans of sardines (yes, they actually printed their
faces on the labels!) distributed by Masbate Gov. Rizalina Seachon-Lanete and
Rep. Scott Davies S. Lanete of the third district of Masbate.

Listen: When people are desperate, wet, hungry and losing their homes because
of floods caused by pollution, clogged sewers and garbage that was never
collected because of the inefficiency of local government—really, do you think
that's a good time to remind them who's in charge? Or to be more specific—who
DIDN'T do their jobs?

Just saying. And that's why we love FB.
FROM THE TRIBUNE
Expert: Lack of planning causes massive flooding
Written by Mario J. Mallari

HELPLESS AQUINO MEN APPEAL FOR
HELP

Lack of foresight, lax enforcement and political self-interest are
behind the almost predictable yearly massive flooding in most parts of the
country during a major downpour, an expert said as President Aquino's role in
his two years in power is increasingly becoming the focus of the recent disaster
that hit most of Central Luzon, including Metro Manila, as a result of nearly
two weeks of monsoon rains.

The deluge was compounded by a typhoon and
torrential rains that have left 73 people dead across the
Philippines.

Authorities appeared helpless with the vast devastation as
they appealed yesterday for help in getting relief to two million people
affected by deadly floods in and around the capital, warning that evacuation
centers were overwhelmed.

After more than a month's worth of rain was
dumped on Manila in 48 hours, entire districts remained submerged although
overflowing rivers had started to recede and neck-high waters seen earlier were
typically down to knee deep.

The state weather service also dropped its
rain warning yesterday afternoon for the sprawling city of 15 million
people.

Deadly floods that have swamped nearly all of the Philippine
capital are less a natural disaster and more the result of poor planning,
experts say.

Damaged watersheds, massive squatter colonies living in
danger zones and the neglect of drainage systems are some of the factors that
have made the chaotic city of 15 million people much more vulnerable to enormous
floods.

Urban planner Nathaniel Einseidel said the Philippines had enough
technical know-how and could find the necessary financing to solve the problem,
but there was no vision or political will.

"It's a lack of appreciation
for the benefits of long-term plans. It's a vicious cycle when the planning, the
policies and enforcement are not very well synchronized," Einseidel, who was
Manila's planning chief from 1979 to 1989, said.

"I haven't heard of a
local government, a town or city that has a comprehensive drainage masterplan,"
he added.

Eighty percent of the Manila was this week covered in waters
that in some parts were nearly two meters (six and a half feet) deep.

The deluge was similar to the one in 2009 during typhoon Ondoy, a
disaster which claimed more than 460 lives and prompted solemn pledges from
government leaders to make the city more resistant to floods.

A
government report released then called for 2.7 million people in shantytowns to
be moved from "danger zones" alongside riverbanks, lakes and sewers.

The
plan would affect one in five Manila residents and take 10 years and P130
billion to implement.

But Einseidel said that while there had been some
efforts to relocate squatters, they never succeeded.

"With the increasing
number of people occupying danger zones, it is inevitable there are a lot people
who are endangered when these things happen," he said.

Squatters,
attracted by economic opportunities in the city, often build shanties on river
banks, storm drains and canals, dumping garbage and impeding the flow of
waterways.

"The same people who were already told not to return to the
rivers and creeks and floodways are back. They are there again and they are the
ones who don't want to leave now."

He blamed the phenomenon on poor
enforcement of regulations banning building along creeks and floodways, with
local politicians often wanting to keep squatters in their communities to secure
their votes at election time.

Meanwhile, on the outskirts of Manila,
vital forested areas have been destroyed to make way for housing developments
catering to a growing middle and upper class, according to architect Paulo
Alcazaren.

Alcazeren, who is also an urban planner, said the patchwork
political structure of Manila had made things even harder.
The capital is
actually made up of 16 cities and towns, each with its own government, and they
often carry out infrastructure programmes — such as drainage and watershed
protection — without coordination.

"The controls of physical development
must not be dependent on political boundaries of towns and provinces," he
said.

"Individual cities can never solve the problem. They can only
mitigate. If you want to govern properly, you must re-draw or overlay existing
political boundaries."

Solutions to the flooding will all require massive
efforts such as re-planting the watersheds, building low-cost housing for the
squatters and clearing drainage systems, the experts said.

"It will cost
billions of pesos but we lose billions anyway every time it floods," Alcazeren
said.

Disaster chiefs said the top priority was to help the 1.95 million
people affected by the floods, as masses flocked to evacuation centers in search
of a dry place to sleep, food, water, medicine and clothes.

"We are
repacking a lot of relief items, we need more help and are asking for more
volunteers," Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said.

"We have the
food but we need to pack them, deliver and distribute them in this massive
operation."

Soliman said many evacuation centers were not able to provide
much-needed warm meals to the growing number of displaced.

The number of
people in schools, gymnasiums and other buildings that had been turned into
evacuation centers rose to 293,000 on Thursday, from 150,000 on Wednesday,
according to the government's disaster management council.

Meanwhile,
hundreds of thousands of others were left largely to fend for themselves,
seeking refuge with friends and relatives, or staying in partly submerged
homes.

In the riverside district of Marikina, where massive squatter
communities were inundated, some residents returned to their homes on Wednesday
night only for another deluge to hit a few hours later and cause another flood
spike.

One of those forced to evacuate once more, housewife Alona
Geronimo, told Agence France Presse she and her neighbors were exhausted and
feeling hopeless.

Geronimo said she had not been able to save anything in
the floods.

"We have just the clothes on our backs. It was just like
Ondoy," she said, referring to a tropical storm in 2009 known as Ketsana in
English that submerged 80 percent of Manila and killed 464 people.

Twenty
people have died from this week's rains in Manila and nearby provinces,
according to authorities.

Meanwhile, vast amounts of
garbage are dumped by a fast-growing population into drainage
systems.

Aquino doesn't seem to have had enough patience in hopping from
one submerged Metro Manila city to another, as the "deeply concerned" President
seen the previous day transformed into an impatient chief executive who went on
to nag at stubborn residents whom he claimed has refused rescue efforts of the
government during the height of the inclement weather that poured more rain than
what was recorded for tropical storm Ondoy in September 2009.

In his
third stop, Aquino found himself ranting at the displaced families from Barangay
Bagong Silangan in Quezon City, even as he asked local folks to seriously
consider help on those who are helping you".

Citing instances based from
reports reaching his desk, Aquino cited precious time that was wasted to
families whom he claimed had to be fetched five times by rescuers, who are made
to wait, unmindful of the risk the latter is exposed to while adding that more
would have been assisted had they immediately agreed to be rescued.

In an
apparent effort which tends to tell displaced families at the covered court
utilized as temporary evacuation center, the Malacanang chief executive also
said that the national government will give higher priority to rehabilitation
efforts of the government to infrastructure destroyed or damaged by the monsoon
rains.

Specifically, the President spoke of a program delving on a plan
to retard upstream tributaries of Marikina River.
Earlier, Aquino visited
Marikina City families adversely affected by the havoc wrought by the inclement
weather and promised a long-term solution to the massive river swelling in place
before he steps down in 2016.

Overall, the NDRRMC said that a total of
128 municipalities and 30 cities from six regions were affected by massive
flooding, in some areas went as high as roofs, as intermittent heavy rains
occurred Wednesday.

As of press time yesterday, Office of the Civil
Defense-NCR director Susana Cruz reported that several areas in Metro Manila
remained submerged under floodwater and a number of roads still impassable due
to flooding.

In NCR alone, Cruz reported that a total of 33,087 families
or 97,653 people were evacuated to safer grounds due to flooding.

Cruz,
however, noted improving conditions in Metro Manila as the weather started to
improve yesterday.

Metro Manila received the biggest slice due to the
extent of damage. In its latest bulletin, NDRRMC said there were 1,953,481 flood
victims – from the Ilocos Region, including heavily populated Pangasinan,
Central Luzon, Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon),
Mimaropa (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, and Palawan), Western Visayas and Metro
Manila.

The capital city itself has been placed under a state of calamity
as have been other towns and cities in the national capital region as well as
some areas north and south of the capital.

States of calamity have been
declared in Marikina, Malabon, Navotas, Valenzuela, Muntinlupa, San Juan, Pasig,
Pasay, Caloocan and Pateros in Metro Manila; the provinces of Bataan, Bulacan,
Pampanga and Zambales in Region III; Laguna in Region IV-A; and in the Palawan
municipalities of Culion, El Nido and Linacapan in Region IV-B.

Under a
state of calamity, the government will be able to impose automatic price
controls in affected areas until such time as the situation normalizes. Price
freeze, according to officials, could stay as long as 60 days. with AFP



Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
All
rights reserved




PHILIPPINE
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