Congen responds to criticisms on typhoon relief
Congen responds to criticisms on typhoon relief
By Dyan Ruiz
The head of the Philippines Consulate in Toronto, Junever Mahilum-West, sat down with community leaders and The Philippine Reporter to respond to the government not “having its act together” when it comes to the relief efforts following the devastation caused by Typhoon Haiyan.
Toronto Consul-General Mahilum-West met with leaders of Filipino-Canadian advocacy organizations, Connie Sorio of iwWorkers and Chris Sorio of Migrante Canada, Jesson Reyes of Anakbayan, and Jonathan Canchela of the Migrante Partylist. The meeting occurred on the evening of Nov. 16 as the same groups hosted a vigil outside of the Consulate to mourn and honor the victims Typhoon Haiyan, known in the Philippines as Typhoon Yolanda.
The super typhoon was the strongest ever to hit landfall and barreled through the central Philippine islands on Nov. 8, leaving behind more than 11 million people impacted according to United Nations estimates. Thousands are dead or injured and millions are homeless.
The emergency relief efforts by the President Benigno Aquino II administration has been criticized heavily by international and local media, who are reporting from areas heavily hit, such as Tacloban City on the east coast of Leyte province. The criticisms echo those voiced by advocacy groups and the survivors themselves.
Mahilum-West told the Toronto group to “speak frankly” and they did.
“Our government doesn’t have its act together. It’s been six days after the disaster. The goods and relief are just trickling in. There are still a lot of dead bodies lying around, unidentified,” Connie Sorio said to the Consul-General. “People are being criminalized. They’re being called looters because they need water and food and so on, and they can’t wait for the official emergency relief to come because they’re hungry,” she continued.
In a one-on-one interview with The Philippine Reporter prior to the meeting, the Consul-General responded more specifically about why it is taking so long for the Aquino government to distribute aid, days after the typhoon hit.
“The first priority was needs assessment. We must consider the situation of the Philippines,” she said talking about the lack of resources available. She said the Philippines is still modernizing their army and lacks transport vehicles, like helicopters, for example.
“We also have to take into consideration the magnitude of the typhoon, which was the strongest so far experienced by the Philippines. We had disaster preparedness plans, but they were based on past parameters, past typhoons that visited the Philippines. I think this time, the strength of the typhoon, the magnitude of the typhoon was just too much. All of this planning and preparations proved to be insufficient,” she said. Mahilum-West also said the total shutdown of communication lines hampered relief efforts.
When asked why the Philippine government seemed to prioritize the cracking down of “looting,” that is, people who were taking the only food they could find, be it from other people’s houses and stores, she said “the government has to enforce peace and order first so that the relief operation could go on.” She noted that Aquino resisted declaring Martial Law in the impacted areas.
She said in the interview that relief efforts focused on Tacloban City because of the media presence there and “Our Secretary of the Interior and Local Government [Mar Roxas] has been surveying, going by helicopter, island hopping, to see the damage. So after the needs assessment had been done, we hear that now the relief operations are going smoothly.”
In the interview, the Consul-General said there would be transparency in the way the government allocates funds towards relief, and also encouraged people to donate to non-governmental organizations that have a history of providing emergency aid.
Later, Mahilum-West assured the group, “We will convey everything to Manila.” In conclusion to the meeting, in which the participants spoke English and Tagalog, the Consul-General said about the government’s relief efforts, “We encourage them to succeed now. We can analyze later.”
The Vice-Consul, Bolivar L. Bao, and the Labor Attaché for the Philippine Overseas Labor Office, Leonida V. Romulo, also attended the meeting.
Outside the Consulate, the group of about 20 who gathered for the vigil holding candles included Doctoral Candidate at York University, Conely de Leon, who wanted to stand in solidarity with the host organizations and “commemorate all those who have passed as a result of Typhoon Yolanda and all those who are still struggling and dealing with a lot of the structural conditions that have made living conditions there very difficult,” she said.
Other topics discussed at the meeting were concerns over the use of public funds– funds that could have been used for disaster relief and preparedness– but were instead siphoned into the Pork Barrel system. In fact, the group had originally planned the event to be a protest against Pork Barrel, which allows for local projects and funds to be given as part of unrelated bills under the “Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).” Politicians and businesspeople such as Janet Lim-Napoles stand accused of taking advantage of the system to line their own pockets. The event was changed in the wake of the typhoon, but the group delivered a petition opposing the PDAF.
Among the other issues raised by the group were permanent consular services in provinces with a growing Filipino-Canadian population, such as in Alberta and Saskatchewan, longer business hours for the Toronto Consulate, and more financial support for migrant workers.
Chris Sorio, Reyes and Canchela all conveyed that the number one message they wanted to give to the Consul-General was the speedy delivery of disaster relief operations. They talked about the relief efforts that Migrante Canada, in conjunction with their Philippine and international counterparts, are providing. In Canada, Sagip Migrante is raising funds through Migrante BC, a registered charity.
“As much as you may be seeing us as very critical of policies,” Connie Sorio said, “we also want to work with you in terms of improving more services towards our countrymen,” she told Mahilum-West.
The Consul-General said, “We’re open. If you want to come, let us know. We’ll have dialogues. We’ll have this continuing dialogue.”
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