Philippines Notebook: A National Disaster Brings Death and Blame

Like any Asian capital city, Manila is a magnet for people from the countryside wanting to make a better living. The city groans to over capacity; squatter villages and shanty towns spring up and ten years later they have taken permanent hold with their own infrastructure (usually involving illegal electricity and water supplies), their own laws, their own endless cycle of poverty as inhabitants marry each other and the shanty towns spread further and the cycle continues.

Last week, I filmed in a particularly violent, poor part of Manila. A shanty town of such renown that the Filipinos I traveled with cracked jokes nervously as we approached. If we wanted to buy a gun, a woman, drugs or contraband we were heading in the right direction, they said, double locking the car doors.

The night was monsoonal; a steady sheet of rain came down. The area was ankle deep in grime, it smelled bad, there were leaks and drips and mud and garbage everywhere. Open electrical boxes frizzed out wires inviting electrocution. This was an ordinary monsoon night. Happens every year.

Saturday comes and so does tropical storm Ondoy (known internationally as Ketsana). It rained more that day than the storm that caused the Katrina disaster in New Orleans. The wind racketed around my apartment (safe on the 18th floor, safe in middle class Manila); the rain beat the crap out of the building.

It didn't stop. The terrible infrastructure in this city could not cope with the rain. Throughout the day, the news reported that there was flash flooding. It got worse. It turned into a national disaster as people tried to get away from the rising waters.

An overburdened city is an overburdened city and on Saturday regardless of whether you lived in a shanty town (first and most badly hit) or in a utilities-paying neighborhood (collateral damage and lots of it), it was time to pay the price. People were literally washed away. There was something so poignant about seeing people clinging to umbrellas as they waded, armpit high in water, as if the last protection they had against death was holding onto a useless piece of nylon.

Blame is an important part of the process. There has not been civil, military or natural disaster in any country that I can recall when questions have not been asked afterward about government inability to deal with the consequences of rain, riots, or terrorism.

So it is here. On Sunday a photo of Mikey Arroyo (son of the President) taken that day in his local liquor store, choosing between expensive bottles of alcohol went like the clappers round the Internet. There was no surprise responses just wicked commentary about Mikey showing his standard form in the insensitivity stakes.

On Saturday, opposition representative Teofisto Guingona, citing government audits said that President Gloria Arroyo had violated Philippines budget laws by spending the entire annual $16 million national emergencies fund on her frequent, and very often extravagant foreign trips. (She has been on an average 6 foreign trips a year since becoming President in 2001.)

Blame may make you feel better, as if you were helpless in the face of someone else's wickedness, incompetence or corruption. But it doesn't get you off your roof and onto dry land and it doesn't find your missing relatives. The eerie feeling in Manila right now is more than blame, it's mourning.

 

Comments

[Vince Golangco]

I like what you're trying to say here. That people are always looking for someone to blame. I've been living in the Philippines for about a year now from San Diego. I honestly just wish that the government would make it harder for the people to blame them. The government has been so corrupt and crazy that blaming them is REALLY easy to do. So I honestly empathize with the Filipinos. Hopefully, the elections next year will bring about a better leader. Hopefully, this country can rise back up after this truly devastating storm!

[bulokilong]

continuation of comment below:

The solution to this problem is the construction of water diversion/power generation tunnels to divert excess water towards the east emptying into the Pacific Ocean. It will also generate power. It is not enough that the excess water is emptied into the heavily populated areas, i.e, Bulacan, Pampanga area,Marikina Valley, as it definitely will cause multiple death and destruction downstream. Diverting the excess water to the east will save so many lives as the east side is relatively sparsely populated and at the same time generate power for electricity. The Government of the Republic of the Philippines must consider this as a permanent solution to the recurring problem of flooding in the central Luzon area and Metro Manila."

I'm sorry for encroaching into your space but I do not know where to start. Please think about the opinion I expressed above. You may freely share this thought with your friends, hoping that someday, the people criminally responsible for the release of Angat dam water, on the morning of 26 September 2009,shall face the bar of justice. An in-depth study and analysis of google maps and wikimapia maps will prove my point.

[bulokilong]

Re: Marikina Flood 26 Sept. 2009,
death toll in Provident Village alone:
Official( according to MCF)= 16 dead
unofficial = 58 dead

The recent flood is very unfortunate result of both natural and man made calamities. The release of excess dam waters was done without thinking of the consequences. it is both a criminal and insane act.

"The Angat Lake created by the Angat dam is the main potable water supply source of the Metro Manila Area. However this water when in over abundance, due to very heavy rainfall, is also the cause of widespread flooding, deaths, and accompanying misery affecting not only the provinces of Bulacan and Pampanga but also the Metro Manila Area. This happens everytime the dam water reaches its maximum height and the spilled water races down through the gullies and streams to the east of the dam and this rampaging water joins the water of the Marikina river system multiplying the floodwater volume of the Marikina River system thereby causing rapid increase in the volume of floodwater in the Marikina Valley. This happens everytime very heavy rains overfills the Angat water reservoir.

[FogBelter]

My wife is from the Philippines and has lived through typhoons in Manila before. She told me that there has always been flooding in Manila (Marikina is quite susceptible due to its low lying topography) during the rainy season, but never to this extent. The question is whether or not a dam failed, or, another possibility, the amount of development around Manila exasperated the flow of water into the river system and caused the Pasig to overflow its banks to such a dramatic level.

I'm sure the chorus of "Not me!" will begin in earnest among government officials as the finger of culpability gets pointed.

[LMPE]

Corazon Aquino must now be spinning in her grave (if it hasn't gotten washed up).

[gretchenque]

While blame is a commodity amusing to pass around, the Filipinos are stepping up and taking charge where the government has failed. Perhaps, the movement created by the people for the people deserves a brighter spotlight than a small percentage of us circulating blame.

[FogBelter]

The Philippines is one of many nations on earth where the people persevere despite their elected officials rather than because of.

[Very Berry]

Totally agree.