Typhoon Ondoy September 26, 2009

29Sep09

I thought I was going to be able to make a beautifully written piece out of what happened but I suppose you can call this some sort of rude awakening. My response to a concise but useful blog post whose link I found on twitter.

Add me up and tweet with me: armimillare

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Vultures, Too

memes: blogging, borrowings, current events, cyberspace, mainstream media, passing thoughts, political commentary

Another quick post, folks.

The vultures everywhere are coming all out in force. Here are some of the things we’ve seen online:

1. Government officials allegedly not distributing relief goods in Provident Village Marikina because no media to cover their distribution.

2. Citizen apparently being told by SSS person that no funds are available for calamity loan.

3. DSWD allegedly repacking ABS-CBN relief goods in Pasig, reducing package contents.

4. Relief goods apparently being acquired by residents of a gated community for P1000 (sort of like shopping and delivery).

5. Taxi cabs doing “kontrata” (Metro Manila cabbies, what else is new).

6. Syrofoam care packages and plastic bags of relief goods with politicians’s names.

7. Looters in Provident Village, Marikina.

Well, let’s help our friends in the media use the information as leads to blow these people out of the water, so to speak.

Here’s what we’ll do:

1. Leave a comment, preferably not anonymous (dapat may bayag ka, ‘tol).

Tell us what you know and a link to the original Plurk message/ Twitter message/ Facebook message/ blog post/ and so on.

Eyewitness accounts/ personal stories are best, and avoid sharing replurks and retweets.

Photos will be excellent, especially if you can tell us who and where they were taken.

2. I’ll continue updating this post.

Don’t worry about messages on the same topic from different people; multiple eyewitness accounts are good for verification.

3. There is no 3. Let’s just hope mainstream media uses our leads.

this is armi millare of up dharma down. i have lived in provident village for the last 21 years and have never faced anything like this before. i hope that says it all. but for the sake of those who are interested in grammatically compromised, unedited and “biased” writing, please bear with me.

im overwhelmed with mixed emotions and a new found perspective in life. i feel grateful that my family and i are all okay, however there’s this cloud of fear hanging over me. we’re not secure with the way things are going, knowing there are no funds supporting the calamity victims, despite having been given the headcount and knowing that this has been the worst that the metro has faced, no good news regarding RESCUE EQUIPMENT and QUICK DEPLOYMENT of troops have come our way.

what more can i say about the mindless spending of our dear president who directed all the funds into one huge, lavish party in the US? the money couldve been spent on rubber boats for my neighbors, my family and i along with other victims of this tragic chapter in philippine history. i went to the city hall last night to take a quick look at the families who lost homes and donated food along with my high school friends and asked about the estimate of the families they know of in provident. and guess what? they don’t know. how will they be able to track down the number of houses that need protection in the dark at night while looters run around and surround the area, taking advantage of their plight?

im not talking about provident villages alone, im talking about greenpark subdivision, dona juana subdivision, some parts of pasig, san juan and other areas gravely affected by the typhoon. or am i asking for too much? because THERES ABSOLUTELY NO POWER where my family lives up until now, understandably its to protect the areas damaged enough to become life threatening to whatever’s left of the population but what do you do to combat the predicament?

last monday, i dropped off food at home after 2 days of living off of what was left in the fridge. after i kissed my parents goodbye, i walked along with my brother and his girlfriend in the mud and were told to run for our lives by a group of bystanders carrying what looked like their only form of weaponry: flashlights, after hearing 3 gunshots just 2 houses down. i went to the front gate on my way out after balancing myself along with my brother and his girlfriend to tell the MMDA about what happened. they seemed VERY CALM and unattentive like everything was in order.

we drove to the nearest school, near the office of the bgy captain and they assured us that they had already sent “troops” when I DID NOT SEE ANY at the time the robbery was taking place. if not for my friend who’s the son of a high ranking police official, my mom, my dad, my brother, my aunt and uncle, cousins and friends coming over to bring food, the risk of losing the only thing i have right now would be larger than all this.

imagine having seen death floating around your house, just 3 feet away from you and your family and experiencing THAT after calling yourself lucky for SURVIVING a natural calamity. the day after that robbery i came back to provident to clear out more things, and guess what i found? 2 cops waiting outside the village gate, armed with rubber boots whom i reprimanded and told to call for backup. it seems the impossibility of it was so high they told me that the situation is taken care of and that they call the attention of suspicious looking people entering the village. that’s their way of telling me that despite all this, my 70 year old aunt and uncle, my parents, 5 year old niece and cousins are safe and can now sleep like babies. how did these people get qualified to take such an important task? do i have to do the math and multiply the number of people whose lives depend on this standard of security we’re going to deal with until we all purchase new homes?

what about others who haven’t been found yet? there are SO many questions that we already know the answer to, its to let SOME of the mindless, insensitive government officials who think what happened was a natural occurrence. no it is not normal to find hundreds of thousands of people MISSING and finding infants dead and floating in your village. i have lived a quiet life before this, skipping the news night after night because of the negativity around me. back in the day i never really paid that much attention whenever i would see clips of people on top of their roofs, . because i thought there was nothing i could do to help and that something like that wont ever happen to me but now i actually spend more time thinking about how to INFORM people than attend to my personal needs so that what happened to the people around me and my family wont ever happen again.

but really, im just a girl who sings in a band that’s not so popular, and doesn’t have that much help to extend but a laptop saved along with a few things, who used to live in a 4 storey house, born into a family comfortable enough to sleep with the news on while people are dying from a few hours away by car. the gravity of the situation has completely changed me but i think that if this reaches those people CAPABLE enough of helping in a larger scale they might be able to save more lives.

we’re not asking for anything but the SECURITY and SURVIVAL of those in need. there is a storm to hit manila in the next 2 days and i have to fly out to take care of some personal things and what do i have hanging over me? the worry that 10 people other than my immediate family who still reside in that village along with the rest of manila, my friends and colleagues, band mates, remaining family will never be safe enough to say help will come their way should something like that happen again.

my neighbors were on top of their roofs for more than 15 hours screaming for FOOD and HELP and i could hear the rescue teams roaming around the village but never saw them coming. yesterday there were reports that our neighbor from a street away were trapped inside their home because the rescue team couldn’t pull them out. they cant give me the load of crap and say we tried, because god knows these rescue teams WOULD DO EVERYTHING if they had the resources to act on a situation involving people at the brink of death. i know others were prioritized but there wouldn’t be a PRIORITY NUMBER in the first place if there had been enough equipment.

to volunteer for a position or to take up on a responsibility like that does not make them nincompoops. but the lack of equipment BECAUSE OF INSERT UNBELIEVABLY UNCONSCIENTIOUS ELECTED OFFICIALS that couldve done something does. the lack of rescue equipment puts everyone’s lives in danger the minute a mention of a storm is underway. i sleep with one eye open and tremble in fear everytime the rain falls from the sky. i wouldnt wish that on my worst enemy however im being pushed to think ill thoughts because some people aren’t doing ANYTHING about it. what, visit the site and put the best worst face on?

and what about the useless politicking and the CLAMOUR FOR MEDIA ATTENTION before releasing goods to people who sleep at night hugging their ONLY MEAL until the next ration comes in? instead of SENDING MEDIA to places with ZERO survival count since saturday? i would LOVE to be proven wrong and i would love to be told that they’ve done enough, but how many storms will it take for their lack of equipment to cater to the population LEFT after what, 36 more storms in the next 5 years?

my neighbors would still be alive, or maybe the ones left behind would’ve been able to save more equipment if we were given some sort of WARNING that the goddamn dam (pun intended) was going to release water. who knows if all that ever happened? i would still be at home at least with a considerably good amount of important things saved. though you know what, however unbelievable, i’m not torn about how good it feels to KNOW that my peers and i are needed and that we could still do something to let people know as much as possible on how they can save more lives at a time like that.

im not zooming in on all government officials because we do have friends who we know are taking care of their respective areas, who are helping people i know without the malicious intent to PROMOTE themselves for the upcoming godforsaken elections instead of preparing for the safety of the people they want to take care of in the future. a responsibility one has sworn into, especially when neglected is tantamount to diving a knife through a sleeping child’s chest. im no good, im sure, a lot of other people are doing a lot and if not for them, perhaps my family and i would have perished along with 80 other residents in provident villages, but do they even FEEL anything? i would really love to be proven wrong.

do not call me an ignorant monger who doesn’t know what she’s talking about because i do. scroll up and you’ll know that sometimes other people wake up in the middle of the night having nightmares and drowning in their sleep. i hope that never happens to anyone in real life. i hope nobody gets to see the food they need to eat for sustenance and yet be deprived of it just because nobody but GOD and the people in sight can see the random act of kindness.

this morning my parents decided to make our house a place to drop off goods to donate to other neighbouring areas affected by ondoy until a friend advised me to halt the planning for the upcoming operations in 2 days. apparently delivery trucks with goods and places without enough security get mugged and attacked by those in need. but that wont stop me. or the people i work with. i will keep everyone posted, and help in another way. if this doesnt change the entire world, i hope this changes yours and that is more than enough.

rest in peace ondoy victims, tony chua, alexis tioseco, nika bohinc, eguid family and unnamed heroes who died for others. especially those who are still not given justice and quick action. there is hope and its not too late. however i may need your help starting from today.

sincerely yours,

rmi millare

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