“Apres nous le deluge” — Madame de Pompadour

The “deluge,” that Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, or Madame de Pompadour, a French woman of noble birth who became an influential mistress of Louis XV, had referred to was the inevitability of the French Revolution of 1789 as a result of monarchial incompetence, incessant foreign wars, royal excesses, and bureaucratic corruption.

However, the “deluge” that we are referring to here was the extraordinary and catastrophic tropical downpour brought about by typhoon “Ondoy” that inundated and devastated nearly all the vales and low lying areas of metropolitan Manila, and environs, not to mention the havoc that the pursuing typhoon “Pepeng” had wrought on northern Luzon.

Nobody was to blame. We are all to blame because we never learn.

Be that as it may, under the unexpectedly severe circumstances, the national government, the private sector, Churches of every denomination, civic organizations, and kind-hearted individuals instinctively waded into the raging rivers and mud to rescue, save, or distribute goods to stranded households, women and children.

It was awesome and commendable.

Needless to say, finger pointing, sourgraping, and hindsights invariably followed which are as regular as the typhoons themselves.

First, the nation was never, and is today, not prepared for calamities.

It has been said that the events maybe natural or Act of God, but the disasters are man-made. Neither the national government nor the local government units (LGUs) is equipped nor trained nor coordinated nor sufficiently funded for major disasters.

Moreover, except for typhoon “Ondoy," the same, more or less, victims of flooding and landslides, are the same ones that were being evacuated and given relief year after year, and flood after flood.

These are squatters and nomads that squeeze themselves under bridges, river banks, lakeshores, denuded hillsides, and esteros.

Why they are being tolerated by local government officials?

Because they become instant voters. And, there is always the national government and bleeding hearts who go to their rescue with relief goods and donations.

Second, the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC), the major whipping boy, is a coordinating body without police or coercive powers over local government units.

The President, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, and her NDCC Chief Operating Officer, Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro, for example, did their best but could only mobilize what is strictly under their direct control, such as, Cabinet departments and their agencies, Armed Forces, Philippine National Police, and others which resources and manpower are not only inadequate but were spread out too thinly against overwhelming odds.

Neither should the LGUs be blamed. Suffice it to say that local government officials from the mayor down to the barangay captains are insufficiently trained or motivated, or equipped for disasters.

However, they have the internal revenue allotments (IRA) and the warm bodies but there is not enough synergy and coordination between national agencies and local units. This is where petty local political rivalries get in the way of efficiency.

The second major whipping boy is the PAGASA weather bureau whose importance has never been recognized but takes all the blame.

When all is said and done, “Ondoy” and “Pepeng” were neither the first nor the last. The nation remains shamefully unprepared, and complacency has returned together with the squatters.

The state of calamity proclamation is one way of coercing the LGUs into action.

As the eminent Irish scientist, Ernest Rutherford, had opined, “We haven’t got the money, so we’ve got to think.”

You be the judge.