The Media
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| Anderson Cooper of CNN |
“For
the last four days, I’ve been seeing dead bodies in the streets here ... Literally
there was a body on the streets of this town yesterday being eaten by rats
because this woman had been laying in the street for 48 hours. And there’s
(are) not enough facilities to take her up.
Well, I mean, there are a
lot of people here who are kind of ashamed of what is happening in this country
right now, what is — ashamed of what is happening in your state, certainly. And
that’s not to blame the people who are there. It’s a desperate situation. But I
guess, you know, who can — I mean, no one seems to be taking responsibility.”
Anderson Cooper of CNN said these words in the aftermath of
KATRINA – the typhoon that engulfed the United States in 2005. It happened to the best of them, the richest
of them, and the strongest of them.
Yes, indeed, for its
response to KATRINA, that of the richest, world’s strongest militarily, and
touted as the greatest country in the world, Cooper and a lot of Americans felt
“kind of ashamed” of their own country at the time.
Eight years later a Super typhoon dubbed as the strongest in recorded
history descended upon the Philippines.
Named YOLANDA, this “act of God” was about 5 times stronger than
KATRINA. Devastating a country a lot
smaller than the U.S.A., with a GDP of about 1/60th, and a military
several hundred times weaker, YOLANDA also merited an Anderson Cooper report on
the government’s relief efforts.
You would think that if
it could happen to a country like the United States, it would be more
understandable if it happens to a much smaller and poorer one like the
Philippines, right?
Reporting on
the fifth day after the disaster, CNN's Anderson Cooper called out the
Philippine government for the slow relief effort, saying it was unclear who is
in charge.
Cooper said, “It is a very desperate situation, among the
most desperate I’ve seen in covering disasters over the last couple of
years,"
He went
further, “There (Tacloban) families, their
mothers living having to sleep near the bodies of their dead children having to
smell their dead children and this is day 5 and its been going on now for 5
days at that their child has been laying near them, that they have been smelling
their child while they search for their other children who are still missing,
and they're searching all by themselves or they're searching which such the
help of a few relatives but many of those relatives are also searching for
other relatives who are missing." -
“You would expect perhaps to see a feeding center that had been
set up 5 days after the storm. We haven’t seen that, certainly not in this
area. Some food is being brought to people here at the airport, some water
being distributed but these are very, very difficult conditions for the people...”
Noticeable
in both KATRINA and YOLANDA reporting, Cooper and CNN focused on three
areas: Desperateness of the Situation,
Dead Bodies in the Streets, and Government Presence or Responsibility. It is like a pre-written script. But Cooper reported what he saw in Tacloban
City and the world watched.
DESPERATE
SITUATION
Indeed, one can really report a
desperate situation in Tacloban City.
The devastation was catastrophic – its effects unexpected, unavoidable,
unforeseen and inevitable. It was cruel
and unforgiving. The local authorities
prepared for it and the residents were warned not to take chances days before
by no less than the President of the Philippines.
But no
amount of preparation could have prevented nor mitigated the desperate
situation. All the material items such
as food, medicine, and other necessities for initial relief were washed
out. All the machinery, equipment,
transport, and other tools for relief efforts were also washed away. Manpower resources led by the Mayor,
employees, and volunteers were victims themselves. Many were desperately saving themselves and
their families. The offices, buildings and centers for possible packing and
distribution of relief goods were flattened and totally damaged. In the case of KATRINA, many buildings
including the New Orleans Superdome remained standing and usable. In Tacloban, only the airport building was
usable for YOLANDA survivors and other operations.
DEAD BODIES
The presence of dead bodies in the
streets of Tacloban as in Louisiana and Mississippi is not surprising. Cooper should have expected it considering
the strength of YOLANDA compared to KATRINA.
Furthermore, before the storm, many people from the outlying areas moved
to Tacloban thinking that they would get more protection and aid there.
More
importantly, unbeknownst to Cooper, there are legal and religious
considerations for mass burial in the Philippines. Even the World Health Organization cautioned
the country’s Department of Health against mass
burials. According to its “Management of
Dead Bodies in Disaster Situations” manual, immediate mass burials without
proper identification may violate some right.
"Burial
of bodies in common graves or the use of mass cremation is unnecessary and a
violation of the human rights of the surviving family members," it said.
"Practices such as the use of
common graves or cremation make identification impossible, besides violating religious
and cultural beliefs...identification of bodies should be done so that the
desires and the customs of the families are respected."
It noted
that the rights of ethnic communities, which are protected by law, might also
be violated by mass burials.
WHO IS IN CHARGE?
PAGASA, the Philippine government’s
Weather Bureau has been tracking YOLANDA’S coming for several days prior.
On November
7th, the day before the storm, YOLANDA entered the Philippine Area of
Responsibility (PAR) triggering storm signal No. 3 in the morning. This was upgraded to signal No. 4 in the
evening.
Local governments including Tacloban
conducted preemptive evacuations and class suspensions were declared in various
parts of the country. PNoy in a televised address also urged Filipinos not to
take chances. The head of NDRRMC, which
is FEMA’s equivalent, Sec.
Voltaire Gazmin, Interior and Local Governments Secretary Mar Roxas, and Social
Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman arrived at Tacloban to make sure that
preparations were made and adequate.
On November 8th, YOLANDA
brought monster winds and giant waves - flattening homes and buildings, and
wreaking havoc to the population that nobody has ever seen.
The Super typhoon destroyed power and communications. The government closed down major airports and
ports.
Geraldine Uy Wong, an eyewitness who
wrote an open letter to Anderson Cooper described the situation this way:
“The
super typhoon decimated a big part of the population that so many people are
still missing and unaccounted for to this day, and the rest who survived were
either maimed and injured, were grieving for the loss of a loved one,
struggling to cope with the tragedy that befell upon them, or simply looking
for ways to take care of what remained of their family. In other words,
everyone was a victim. And who are these people? These were the soldiers,
police, Red Cross staff, social welfare staff, airport staff, bureau of fire
protection (BFP) people, nurses, doctors, even the officials like the mayor and
vice-mayor! And so if we look at things in this perspective, we begin to
realize why there were no military and police to protect the people in the
first few days, no staffers to repack or distribute relief goods, no BFP
personnel to take care of clearing up the roads filled with dead people; in
other words, there was hardly anyone there to put order into things as they
were all victims themselves. I found out from one of the officials I spoke with
that the people who came in much later to fill those places were flown in from
Manila or pulled out from the other nearby towns that were not as badly
affected. And so, those BFP people I saw clearing the road on Monday, the
soldiers who were helping to slowly put order into the place, the red cross
staffers who tried to address the health concerns of the victims, and even the
DSWD staffers who were being deployed to evacuation centers and relief centers
to distribute food and water, were mostly imports and volunteers from other
places, and they were only able to start streaming in on the 3rd or 4th day!
Therefore, the lack of manpower was not due to a lack of preparation but
because of the unexpected loss or absence of these people who were supposed to
be the government’s frontrunners!”
When Cooper made the live report on
the 5th day out of Tacloban, my research and other media sources had
noted the following government actions: 1) The Philippine National Police
deployed at least 883 personnel to affected areas, including 400 to Tacloban
City, Leyta alone; 2) The Senate proposed the creation of a P10 billion Rehab
Fund; 3) PNoy had declared a “State of National Calamity”; 4) The Department of
Budget and Management had allotted up to P26.84 billion to
help assist victims and rehabilitate affected areas; 5) PNP Chief ordered
implementation of price freeze; 6) In Tacloban City, the government deployed
armored vehicles, set up checkpoints, and imposed curfew to help end looting;
7) 540 family food packs were airlifted to Tacloban City on board a
C130 of the Philippine Air Force on November 9, 2013; 8) 115,448 food packs
(P31.06 million) and other food and NFls (P109.33 million) were readily
available for augmentation; 9) As of November 13, 2013, a total of 115,607
food/rice packs were provided to Eastern Samar with hub in Guiuan (16,344
food/rice packs), Tacloban City (44,263 food/rice packs) and Leyte (55,000
food/rice packs); 30 sacks of rice each to BJMP (50kgs per sack), Eastern
Visayas Medical Center (30 kgs per sack) and Divine Word Hospital (30kgs per
sack); and 35,505 bottles of 500ml water, 35,210 bottles of 1L water and 168 pcs
of 5-gallon containers to Tacloban City); 10)DSWD repacked a total of
349,431 food packs.
Cooper
reported what he saw in one Barangay out of 30 Barangays in one City out of several
municipalities in one province/island out of several provinces/islands
affected. He concluded an absence of
government and an officer in charge. He
had no knowledge of government actions in dealing with the crisis in other
places, before and during his live report.
He only saw government officials who “baby-sat” him while doing his
report in the Philippines.
No wonder that Korina Sanchez, an anchor of ABS-CBN, the
country’s largest TV network reacted by saying that Anderson Cooper did not
know what he was talking about. CNN
should have known what was happening. It
used many of ABS-CBN’s footages in its coverage before and during the
unreasonably severe and inevitable event.
The fact that Sanchez happened to be the wife of Interior Secretary Mar
Roxas is irrelevant. She was always a
reputable and effective TV Anchor even before she married Roxas.
I have the
highest respect for Anderson Cooper and the CNN. Their network’s contribution to worldwide
broadcasting especially in times of crisis is undeniable. In some way, through CNN,
YOLANDA victims are receiving unparalleled aid.
John Crowley, a journalist from TIME had this perspective:
"When
journalists focus on looting and slow aid delivery, they miss the point.
Information is aid. Their reports are part of weaving the fabric of a global
Filipino community back together after a typhoon tore through their hometowns.
By showing communities coming together, journalists can amplify the dynamics
that save lives."
