Tacloban and body bags

TACLOBAN, Leyte — A trip most unexpected often brings unexpected discoveries.

Arriving at Tacloban Airport you would think that you had gone back in time to another place, perhaps the Vietnam war. That is what it looks like on the ground. Rows of green and gray military vehicles line the side of the airport while helicopters buzz about. Muscle bound fatigue clad US servicemen go about doing “their job” with an “all business” look on their faces. Their paths crisscross with those of foreign volunteers from France, Sweden, Malaysia, Germany, Korea, China, and others wearing, if not flags, then badges stained from work in past disasters of equal proportion. C-130s are on the ground as well as other transport planes, their lives made easier by a radar mounted on top of a Humvee, something you only see in news clips from Desert Storm.

There is no “Airport Terminal” to speak of here, just a massive wreck kept together by tarp and the will to continue operating. Even passengers seem to operate on “emergency mode,” automatically cooperating and unmindful of the water logged floor or what used to be a “baggage carousel,” soon bound for the scrap yard. Boxes pile up mostly medical and emergency materials the delivery of which was made easy by the decision of Philippine Airlines to waive charges on all cargoes for humanitarian aid bound for Tacloban City. We received instructions from a man concerning baggage retrieval. His voice showing the stressful conditions they’ve been under, unbeknownst to many, he is not government. He is with PAL-Express and has been staying in the area catching sleep on chairs in this mosquito infested place. Marc Soong from the Land Rover Club immediately gave 3 pop-up mosquito nets to the airport guys. (Lesson: check on the needs of the first responders because they are always overlooked.)

Realizing operating conditions at the airport we coordinated with BGen.(ret) Joy Joya of CAAP and suggested they organize a company of baggage porters to help ease the movement of so much baggage, and also to provide temporary means of livelihood for the people. He thanked us and promised to put the idea through.

Two minutes out of Tacloban airport I was immediately greeted by 8 bodies now in body bags neatly lined up on the street. This scene sets the tone for the state of Tacloban. A city nearly obliterated by the wrath of nature as well as the pride and arrogance of national politicians whose contempt for a political foe has become their undoing. The dead bodies continue to wash up by the bay, by the road as well as interior residential areas. Those that remain unfound send up the hair-raising, gutwrenching scent of death with decay. Contrary to the claims of national officials, Tacloban is still in the intensive care unit.

Slowly we hear accounts, testimonies, rage, desperation and the never ending question of why help did not come sooner. It becomes apparent that the question is not a question but condemnation of the P-Noy administration based on the belief that if the government acted with urgency, panic even, more lives could have been saved, looting would not have happened, panic and terror would not have gripped the city. They are not playing the blame game. Perhaps the best way to understand their state of mind is to watch or recall the final scene from “Schindler’s List” where Schindler was being thanked and sent off by the Jewish survivors he had helped. But instead he is consumed by guilt and the thought that a pen, a watch, his car could have bought a hundred or more lives.

To those outside of this hell on earth, the point may seem moot or political but not for the thousands who’ve lost entire families, properties and their way of life. It is no longer political, it has become personal.             

Contrary to what has been said in the news, Tacloban is not out of the ICU or intensive care unit. Not when you are dependent on the massive transfusion of relief goods, aid, technology and global goodwill. Not when bodies are beginning to float from the bay released from the unkind grip of the sea. Not when the veins and arteries of mobility and transport such as the airport operate from tents and standby generators. It is not business as usual to be in darkness.

I’ve withheld comment on how this disaster has been managed by the national government until I’ve been on the ground. And now that I have seen it, talked with those affected, even with some international aid workers, this is what is clear: The P-Noy administration obsessed itself with the notion that preparedness equals zero casualty. To this day we have met up with officials from other towns and barangays who have privately confided about the unseen hand that tells them not to talk about the real death toll in their areas to the media.

The obsession with figures refused to accept reality. The reality that a tsunami hit. Forget the semantics and technicality on this one because all the global experts have already said that Typhoon Yolanda was the first of its kind in terms of force and size. Add to that the unique contributing geography and topography of Samar and Leyte that combined to create a natural funnel.

The reality on the ground is that the administration failed, not in giving aid, but giving it grudgingly, too little and too late. They have tried to media-manage matters and tried in vain to put up a brave face and to look competent. Even in that they ended up looking and sounding arrogant. The worst thing they can do now is to successfully make themselves irrelevant.