"ODETTE" was a repeat of “Yolanda”. While the former’s wrath failed to match to that of the latter’s brutality to life, it is not inferior to a catastrophe. The government is yet to fully grasp the extent of the devastation it wrought in Eastern Visayas and the other five regions. While the number of deaths is significantly fewer than that of Yolanda, the worth of devastations to infrastructures and agriculture could run in billions. The president had to declare the affected regions under State of Calamity for a one full year. The move, clearly, shows of Odette’s grave and haunting effect on people and the economy.
While it is praiseworthy of the government that it has somehow appreciated the destruction on the ground, albeit superficially, its unpreparedness to deliver immediate emergency response is appalling.
How could the national government fail to quickly dispatch a ready and adequate emergency help when it should have already learned the lessons eight years ago Yolanda had taught?
Should typhoons of this intensity grow from a frequent concern into a regular thing, something radically critical must be done by the government. It cannot afford to always have a sort of visceral approach and response to disasters so deadly and catastrophic like that of Typhoon Odette and Super Typhoon Yolanda. The present provision of law, which provides the local government with an unbelievably miniscule allocation for calamities and disasters no longer works. It barely responds to the situation, and hardly will compensate the enormous loss. It’s high time Congress should revisit this provision in the light of the aggravating trend of disasters and natural calamities.
Since the National Risk Reduction and Management Council/Office is ridiculously unable to function as an effective executive body during times of disasters, maybe it is high time now that congress must hasten the final passing and eventual creation of a disaster department.
If learning the hard way is necessary, perhaps this yet cataclysmic experience with “Odette” should be the last. With the agency in place, proportionately funded and equipped, having a clear and specific mandate to mitigate and manage disasters, government response to typhoons will not be as tragic as it appears to be the case at present.