SPECIAL REPORT: DISASTER HEROES AND ZEROES
THE grief and destruction the rains and floods that Ondoy and Pepeng caused on September 26 and continue to cause until now brought out the best virtues among many Filipinos as the other stories in this special report will detail. Unfortunately, in some places, the heart-breaking and inspirational deeds of lifesavers, rescuers and relief-goods bearers—the heroes in this special report—were overshadowed by the foul deeds of the zeroes.
Literally foul and smelly was the result of some inconsiderate flood victims temporarily housed in schools used as evacuation centers who did not bother to go to the school’s toilets to defecate but did their thing right there in the classrooms they and other families were using as bedrooms.
Some of them, when the coast was clear and they could move back to their shanties or be taken to a new relocation site, stole the school desks, cannibalized the tables and shelves and took these with them.
In some centers, robbers preyed on their fellow victims. There was even a report of girls being raped by a hoodlum gang.
The villains’ deeds were so vile that an overwhelmed Social Welfare official could not but cry out in tears, “Please do not behave like animals!”
The more notorious acts and misbehavior in evacuation centers have been reported in the papers and the broadcast media.
Here are some more depressing “Zero” and unheroic doings discovered by Times reporters.
In Muntinlupa, our reporter Cris Odronia was informed, two Grade 1 pupils of the Alabang Elementary School were held up by two other evacuees given refuge at that school.
The two 6-year-old pupils lost their jeepney fares when two teenaged boys held them up in the school’s comfort room and took P23 from them. The incident has prompted the school to ask the Muntinlupa police to deploy police officers in the school.
Rina Landrito, a faculty club president of Alabang Elementary School, said police have already investigated the incident but the two teenaged boys who bullied and took their pupils’ money were nowhere to found.
At least 430 families left homeless by Ondoy occupied the two buildings (31 rooms) and two covered courts of the Alabang Elementary School.
Times reporter James Konstantin Galvez learned that:
Momelito Paalisbu, a 43-year-old taxi driver, was arrested at the height of Typhoon Ondoy after pulling off a holdup robbery in Ortigas Center, Pasig City.
Eastern Police District Criminal Investigation Unit Chief Supt. Antonio Yarra said that Paalisbu held up Shella Maya Racaza whom he threatened with a gun into surrendering her cell phone and money.
Also at the height of the typhoon, a policeman, Police Officer 2 Albert Serrano, of the Taytay Police Station, shot a 39-year-old employee at a bar in the town.
Instead of helping victims of Typhoon Ondoy in Taytay, Serrano was seen arguing with a female guest relation officer (GRO) identified as Melchora Yamamoto inside the Buho at Kawayan Restobar. He then shot Robert Reyes, an employee of the bar, who tried to pacify the situation.
Residents of Barangays San Miguel, Maybunga, Santolan, Pinagbuhatan, Malinao, Palatiw, Kalawaan, San Joaquin, Santa Cruz, Bambang, and Santa Lucia were surprised to learn that pedicab drivers in their areas had raised the fare to P200 for a single ride to their destinations.
A police officer living in Barangay San Joaquin tried to apprehend the pedicab drivers for over-charging their passengers. He could do nothing, as people had no other options but to take the three-wheeler going to their offices.
Police arrested three individuals who were accused of raping a 30-year-old woman in Antipolo City, two days after Typhoon Ondoy.
The victim, who was only identified as Katya, a resident of Sitio Tanza 2, Barangay San Jose, Antipolo City, could not believe that after surviving the floods she would fall into the hands of rapists identified as Jose Golla, 21, a resident of Sunrise Valley; Ryan Romero, 39, a resident of Tanzanville; and Kent James Francisco, 21, a resident of Upper Lucban in Barangay Dela Paz, Antipolo City.
The suspects brought her to their “safehouse.” She was able to escape only after the suspects fell asleep. She immediately reported the incident to the police who immediately arrested the suspects.
From correspondent Joenald Rayos in Batangas comes the report that rice rations for families victimized by flood in Barangay Santa Clara, Batangas City ended up in the hands of those residing at the opposite and not flooded side of the city road. This happened when the unvictimized residents stopped the vehicle distributing food rations and commandeered its load.
Reporter Ruben Manahan 4th was dismayed to learn of the work of “cruel, heartless people who used the typhoon for their advantage, or only thought of their own convenience.”
He writes that “robbers and other deviants” were seen by a disillusioned first year high schooler, 11-year-old Anjannette Casabuena of Marilao, Bulacan.
“People were taking all, looting, the rice they could get from a rice dealer in our area. It was like the rice was free,” Casabuena said.
On September 28, Manila Police reports showed that at least three robbery incidents occurred that Monday in broad daylight.
At about 12:30 p.m., the out-patient department in Philippine General Hospital in Taft Avenue was robbed. Some 30 minutes after, a motorcycle was stolen while parked inside hospital premises. Meanwhile, at 2:30 p.m. a 7-Eleven convenience store on España was also robbed. The robbers in the hospital and at the convenience store were arrested and police are still searching for the one who stole the motorcycle.
“Looters are one thing,” writes Manahan, “but government not doing their part extensively is another.”
Casabuena said that the rescue efforts in her area only came a day after the storm. “It was our neighbor who took me from our house when the water started to rise, waist-deep.” The girl had to stay at Seed Academy Foundation, a school used as an evacuation site by their whole neighborhood (her parents got stranded at their workplaces due to the flooding in the Metropolitan area).
A famous GMA 7-dzBB Unang Hirit anchor, Michael “Eagle” Riggs, who was among his networks’ humanitarian workers distributing relief goods in parts of Metro Manila was both amused aghast to see some flood victims coming several times and elbowing others to get rations of relief goods and food.
He saw a woman who first showed up alone, then with a baby in her arm and then being pushed in a wheel chair.
He and his GMA 7 co-workers were amazed to find, when they went from house-to-house in submerged town to deliver relief goods, a house filled with sardines, bags of rice, loaves bread and a pile of clothes.
Either this was a racket of a local government official or of a clever but inconsiderate victim.
Reporter William Depasupil, who calls the government’s social workers the unsung heroes, talked to a DSWD official, Municipal Social Welfare and Development Office chief of San Pedro, Laguna.
She admitted that there were problems, ranging from petty theft to serious criminal offenses, like use of illegal drugs, in evacuation centers.
According to Ma. Fatima Autor, Municipal Social Welfare and Development Office chief, the most common problem they encountered in all 10 relocation centers she was involved in were the evacuees tendency to disregard simple rules.
“They are prohibited from using high consuming electric appliances like rice cooker, electric stove and electric flat iron but they ignored our rules, which often times resulted short circuits and the busting of the main switch,” Autor said.
Others, she further said, did some petty stealing of relief goods, clothes, cell phones and other personal belongings.
Social worker Ethel Ciquiz, who is assigned at the Sioland relocation center, said that there were evacuees under their care who smoked marijuana and drunk heavily.
Ciquiz, however, declined to identify them, saying that those who committed said serious infractions and violation of laws have already been warned by police authorities that a repeat of the same offense would be dealt with accordingly.
“But in general, the evacuees obey our house rules,” Ciquiz said. “We always communicate with them and explain things out.”
What can be done
Why do these mean and evil things happen? Why are there Filipinos who take advantage of their fellowmen during calamities?
Most of those who commit these crimes and behave “like animals” are poor and desperate, uneducated and unformed in the basics of virtues and civic sense.
Obviously, they can only be reformed by education and character formation efforts.
But these efforts will amount to nothing—if the people being taught are so destitute and desperate, jobless and bereft of self-worth and dignity.
Then there is also that factor of not having a good example among the clean, sparkling, rich and famous of our land, so many of whom are examples of bad personal and public moral character.
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