By KATHLEEN T. OKUBO
www.nordis.net

On a media advisory issued on January 15, “4,000 Typhoon Pablo victims protest government’s sluggish relief response, demand sustained relief & genuine rehab.” It advised that the mobilization was to be at the Montevista – Compostela Intersection, led by the “BARUG KATAWHAN Kahugpungan sa mga Biktima sa Bagyong Pablo”. They called it, “Typhoon Pablo Victims’ Woes and Rage.”

The advisory said, “42 days after Typhoon Pablo hit, millions affected by Typhoon Pablo are hungry, homeless and without any means of livelihood. Amidst the government’s failure to deliver quick and sustained humanitarian response, the people’s rage could no longer be contained.

While the victims clamor for genuine and sustained relief and rehabilitation, the victims are outraged with the scandalous hoarding of relief goods by government agencies and politicians who aim to use donated relief goods for electioneering. They decry the callous and deceptive “green card” and food-for-work schemes of the DSWD.

Agri-farm workers are demanding accountability from multinational corporations which have for decades reaped profits from their land and labor. They also denounce the move of agri-business corporation to terminate contracts with local growers.

Coconut farm workers demand immediate release of funds from the Philippine Coconut Authority to the farmers in order for them to rebuild their livelihood.

Farmers in general demand genuine agrarian reform and denounce the D.A.’s attempt to use the calamity to further implement the bogus Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). As both sectors (farmers and agri-workers) are buried in debts from the usurers in the agribusiness, local landlords and government banks and agencies, they are demanding for all debts to be written-off as a humanitarian response to their situation.

The hundreds of thousands of victims demand reparations due to the damages from logging corporations and mining corporations which have caused the denudation of Compostela Valley and Davao Oriental.”

When Baguio was hit by that “killer quake” two decades ago, it was realized that every original family or natives to Baguio had lost or had a wounded or maimed member because of this earthquake. The whole city population was a victim in different yet painful degrees of loss of life or property. To fight the depression, pain and be useful, I joined the church-NGO relief and rehabilitation volunteers the moment I arrived in the city (5 days after the quake). I remember being at the airport and observed the multiple trips of two or three Phil Air Force C-130’s made to the shortened (by large cracks on the runway) Loakan airport. The planes were delivering tons of donated, brand new relief supplies from different countries and volunteer personnel. I also observed how “voluntary” military men required the submission of all relief goods arriving to designated men in uniform, loaded in the military trucks and carted out of the area.

Days after, I was with a team that delivered relief goods to isolated or affected barangays in Baguio, far flung barangays in Benguet, and even in the crowded refugee tents in Burnham Park. To my surprise, I did not see any familiar sample of the tons of relief goods I saw arrive at the airport days earlier. Anyone who would have or has observed this or were part of this in the height of that earthquake disaster, just by the experience, will agree there is truth in the issues being raised by the victims of Typhoon Pablo in Compostela Valley and Davao – the abhorring and loathsome exploitation of disaster victims by organized sections of the state. # nordis.net