Utter Incompetence
It’s a shame that with the devastation wrought by Typhoon Yolanda in the Visayas, the great loss of lives, the untold number of missing, injured, hungry and left homeless, we have been witness to the utter incompetence of our national government, especially PNoy. If only I could take back my vote, I will—and throw my ballot in his face.
Rather than being our Nation’s “Chief Comforter”, PNoy displayed such utter insensitivity. “You did not die, right,” he replied to a businessman’s query about law and order given the looting rampage that was already taking place in Tacloban and the emergence of marauding groups. Worse, in his interview with Christian Amanpour on CNN, PNoy referred to those who died as mere “casualties” and they were “only” at about 2,500. One life lost is too many!
Rather than being our Country’s Chief Executive with over-all supervision of our local governments, PNoy quickly played his usual blame game whenever problems arise. Faced with the utter devastation in Tacloban and other areas, he pointed the finger to the absence of local authorities down to the barangays. But all these local leaders had been practically wiped out or demobilized. You are the Chief Executive, you take over right away! You don’t waste precious time in “kasi, kasi, kasi.” You instantly mobilize the national government. You organize. You control. And you don’t walk out of your own “command conference.”
Rather than being our Commander-in-Chief with our entire Armed Forces at his disposal to immediately deploy to all the areas hit by Yolanda, PNoy and his own defense secretary all started crying about lack of resources. “We only have three C-130 planes,” they whined. “We lack vehicles,” they whined still. Clearly, they were in denial of the magnitude of the destruction we face. But under our laws and the vast and almost unlimited residual powers of the President, our government can readily commandeer private planes for search and rescue operations. And we have more than enough aircraft from Philippine Airlines and other airlines! For land transportation, we have more than enough—what with all our traffic problems. Nevertheless, PNoy and Gazmin should have in the first place deployed all the brand new army trucks parked and sitting under the sun in the Army Logistics Command in Fort Bonifacio. You command! For we are in a state of war for life, for survival, for recovery!
Rather than being our CEO in this crisis to rally the entire nation and manage all the help from around the world pouring in, PNoy and his underlings buried their heads in the sand to hide from all the criticisms of their ineptitude. Anderson Cooper of CNN brought PNoy and his sycophants back to reality when he pointed to the utter absence of food stations, field personnel on carpet search for survivors, and most especially, to the non-existence of a command center at the very least. No one was in charge! Gallingly, PNoy engaged in the usual politico-style distribution of water and other relief goods for media mileage. I wonder why his perpetual companions like Riza Hontiveros and the other “senatoriables” in such pa-pogi “crisis management” were nowhere to be found this time around.
Such utter incompetence!
