For a while now, I’ve been at loss as to what to blog. Scenes of devastation and the actual loss of life and property to millions of Filipinos was overwhelming. It didn’t feel right blogging about anything else where almost everything else will pale in gravity. Class guilt perhaps, the very fact that I am able to blog in convenience indicates that, unlike majority of Filipinos who are poor, I am “unaffected.” For a while, blogging in the time of crisis reeked of insensitivity. Some people say blogging and online social media networks played a crucial role in the relief and rescue operations. I agree. But then again, the people who need the relief aren’t online, and prolonged online “involvement” seemed to me like a convenient excuse not to immerse with the people and get dirty with the actual operations. Posting and re-posting relief and rescue operations has to translate into actual relief and rescue operations. Many times, especially during the immediate days after the typhoons, they do, as proven by the thousands who flocked to organized relief operations. With an inept and inutile government, private citizens and civilian organizations needed to fill the vacuum in social services. But for how long? Especially when all those volunteers go back to their schools and to their workplaces?
During and after our relief operations, we still have to expose the ineptitude of the government and its causes. We, after all, pay taxes mandatorily and thus maintain the system with almost every consumption we make. If the cost doesn’t translate to social services, especially in times of calamity, and worse, makes life more miserable for the masses, why maintain it? I’m posing that as a serious question.
Even worse, calamities are often abused by the government and policy-makers to intensify the prevailing order by implementing unpopular and anti-people policies. Naomi Klen calls it the “Shock Doctrine” where government use “the public’s disorientation following massive collective shocks ““ wars, terrorist attacks, or natural disasters – to achieve control by imposing economic shock therapy.”
A few days ago, I attended a Congress committee hearing on what we all thought to be was a junked proposal to tax SMS messages. Without as much attention as the previous hearings, and with the public focused largely on the relief operations, pro-tax congressmen actually revived the proposal, and even had the gall to use the calamity to justify the additional tax. Other congressmen who opposed the tax tried to junk it altogether to no avail. When more and more observers and media were coming in the meeting, the leadership suddenly decided to suspend the hearing and re-convene in executive session some other time, without all the observers and the media, and the other congressmen who weren’t members of the committee.
Another thing I’d like to point out is the excessive media exposure of American troops in their relief missions. This assistance, I’m telling you is far from selfless. It is a motivated and concerted action to ‘win hearts and minds’. I’m willing to bet that all these will be used to justify the continued implementation of the Visiting Forces Agreement. It’s all a big public-relations stunt. I’m not discounting the help they have probably extended. Yes, thank you, but it’s not worth our sovereignty.
These are but a few government policies that are being rammed into implementation at the wake of the people’s tragedy. There will be more.
Tulong Kabataan is continuing its relief operations for the victims of tropical storms Ondoy and Pepeng. We’re going to have a Balik Eskwela drive where we would do campus clean-ups and other intensified youth volunteer work to mark resumption of classes in storm and flood hit areas. Click here for more details.
law student, national democracy activist, film school graduate, photography hobbyist
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bikoy, wala na taung aasahan sa gobyerno. AS IN WALA. ewan ko. dati i thought na opposition are the ones blocking the administration to do their roles to the people pero ngaun wala talaga. we see naman kung ano nangyayari sa pinas.
san ka makakakita na gobyerno sobrang gahaman? monetary amount of help (sa panahong lahat ay nahihirapan) na ibibigay sa mga private org is subject to tax? pero pag sa gobyerno mo binigay, tax free!!?? ano iyon? harap harapan na taung niloloko eh.
just imagine this, we have 24 senators, how much ang pork barrel ng bawat senador? magbigay sila ng 3M each, how much do we have? 72M. how many congressmen do we have? 1M each, more than 200M. a total of 300M na tulong para sa bansang pinanggalingan din ng pera na yan. pero hindi magawa..
bakit? kasi nasa mga bulsa nila yang perang hinahanap natin.. at ang pangulo nauubusan ng calamity fund? ano iyon??? pangtravel sa ibang bansa at pangkain sa sosyal na resto meron, pero pag sa bayan wala!!??
nakakapag init lang ng ulo.. hay..
maganda ang pilipinas. bulok lang ang sistema ng gobyerno.
Don’t forget those who are aspiring for election and re-election in 2010. Though most have been low profile in their efforts to help the typhoon victims, there are still those who use this opportunity to project their images and perpetuate patronage politics.
tama jhay.. si villar nga nag effort pa maggupit ng name nya para lang malagay sa food na dinidistribute.. lolz.. hay nku talga
I am in the midst of opposition. But for such bad reasons, we are still blaming the government for the mishap and disaster happening at us. Do the government really deserved to be served by the Filipinos? Or do the Filipinos deserves their government?
Well, most probably we might fall into the latter. We should stop asking what to ask form the government. That’s really a pathetic behaviour. I am not a pro-admin but I am a pro Government. This does not necessarily entail that I support GMA. Again that would be a pathetic behaviour.
I must say that, we are born to be Filipinos. Thus we are the ones who should be doing the ‘enough’ actions for our own comfort. Our government is too imperfect for us to depend on. We have our own feet, own hands, own heart, and own mind. Finally, we are bound to utilize those resources. We are not children anymore. We have our own decision-making capabilities. We should look through it that we should be ‘responsible’ with our own families, interests, and own lives.
With all that being said, I rest my case. Kudos and bonsoir!=)
Ano pa nga ba? Peperahan lang naman tayo ng mga crocodiles na yan at pipigain ang bulsa ng tao.
Actually, ngayon, kelangan ng mga yan ng pera para sa election. Naubos ang kupit nila dahil kay Ondoy.
Lulutuin tayo sa sarili nating mantika (Darn!)
then why maintain the government?
re filipinos deserving the government / politicians we have, i disagree. its like giving a old man with heart disease a menu with only McDonald’s Big Mac and 2-pc. Chickenjoy w/ Extra Gravy. he has to choose one because he has to eat, but granted that he was only given those two choices, both very appealing and delicious, maintained and promoted by intense commercial advertising campaigns, i will not fault him if his conditions worsen due to the choice he makes–the system gives him no alternative.
You hit a point with the excessive media coverage on the US troops that helped out. But I believe it’s the media that can really fuel the political part of it if there was any.
My dad (retired US Navy) worked on Okinawa where those troops reportedly came from, and I remember they were always ready to help people when given a chance.
I agree that this “helping out” shouldn’t be used to justify the VFA but let’s not discount the help the soldiers also extended.
Selfless or not, the bottom line is that the American troops helped save lives.
bottom line is they also destroy lives. my point is, none of their present assistance should be used to justify any policy such as the VFA. but that’s what’s happening
Well, I haven’t heard anything to that effect yet. I think we need to be pragmatic about things. It’s easy to be peering from one’s ivory tower when no one in your immediate circle is at risk. I don’t think seeing the US in a purely bad light is a bit counter productive – but that’s just me.
neither did i say anything to the effect of refusing the assistance that we need. exposing the PR stunt for what it truly is is a different matter. like telling a little street girl that the person giving her food is a dirty old man. take the food, but don’t let the man take you to bed.