Massive managerial failure after ‘Ondoy’

The handling of the Ondoy disaster is a massive managerial failure. And it does not speak well of a government that has been in power for almost nine years. So you cannot say this government is a novice.

The first failure is the failure of information. Pagasa (the weather bureau) didn’t know what was coming.

At first, it predicted that Ondoy wouldn’t hit Metro Manila and Cavite. So the two places were not included under either typhoon signal No. 1 or No. 2. Instead, Ondoy went straight to Metro Manila and Cavite, causing the biggest damage.

Also part of the failure of information is the National Disaster Coordinating Council. This is perhaps the only country in the world, says former Information Minister and Sen. Kit Tatad, where disaster is coordinated. NDCC sounds like it is the coordinating body for Ondoy so it can cause more disaster.

Defense Secretary Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro, the Harvard-trained bar topnotcher and NDCC chairman, apparently didn’t know what was going on and what was going to happen. He could have mobilized the national capital’s defense and anti-coup forces (numbering at least 5,000 soldiers, in my estimate, and based in Tanay and Bulacan) to gather information at the grassroots level. The elite force’s intel agents could have told Gibo about the threat and reality of rising floodwaters. The armed forces have antiquated WWII communications system that works even with floods and fire and without the 21st century technology of PLDT, Smart and Globe. The armed forces, particularly the navy, I am sure, has enough rubber boats that can respond to emergency calls.

Also, Gibo’s favored or would-be running mate, Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronnie Puno has under him the 130,000-strong Philippine National Police (PNP), of which about 24,000 are in Metro Manila. Every barangay has at least two policemen assigned to it. They could have monitored the situation at each barangay and fed the info to a central information center that Gibo could have set up even during the height of Ondoy’s wrath.

The same information center could have centralized all info about just how many houses have been overrun by floods, how many families are stranded or are on roof tops, how many victims have to be evacuated or brought to hospitals, how many have died, where to bring the dead bodies. There was just no such central info processing unit.

The same unit could have taken an inventory of barangay centers where evacuees could be brought, the warehouses with rice and other food and medical supplies. Even restaurants and fast food outlets could have been asked to help with instant meals and they would have readily complied (even if the San Miguel Purefoods factory in Marikina and the Jollibee commissary in Pasig were inundated).

The second failure is the failure to take action. Not knowing what was going on, NDCC naturally didn’t know what to do. Malacañang, the riverside presidential palace, itself was quiet in the crucial hours Ondoy was pummeling Metro Manila, Southern and Central Luzon.

Given the lack of info and the lack of action, media took over. And here, the ABS-CBN Broadcasting network really showed its best and its mettle. The network giant stopped all regular programming and for the next three days from the day Ondoy hit land, did nothing but convey information, solicit and dispense relief, and nag government to take action.

As it now appears Ondoy is going to cause a major economic crisis, just like in the aftermath of the July-August flood of 1972.

The 1972 Great Flood caused severe food shortages, food riots, massive inflation, and because many things had to be imported as a result of many shortages, a balance of payments crisis. Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile recalls that the effects of the 1972 crisis lasted into 1974 when happily a commodities boom exploded, triggering an economic boom. Of course, in September 1972, Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law.

Can President Arroyo exploit the situation and impose what looks like martial law (having martial law effects without a formal declaration)? I do not think so.

In 1972, the threat of the communist insurgency was real. The threat of Muslim secession was real. An economic crisis was in full swing. And Marcos was not as unpopular as Arroyo is today.

Today, the communists have all but been co-opted, thanks to Corazon Aquino’s multi-party system instituted by her 1987 Constitution. The Muslim separatists are being aided by the Americans and therefore, you can talk turkey with them.

An economic crisis? I thought we just survived a near-recession.

With the presidential elections of 2010 just eight months away, administration candidates very likely will be decimated and given a massive thrashing.

The tragedy is that the next administration that will succeed Arroyo is not going to be any more competent nor less corrupt than the outgoing one. –Tony Lopez, Manila Times

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