EDITORIAL - The hijacking of the Yolanda protests

That there is reason to protest the slow and inadequate government response to Yolanda, even after a year since the world's strongest storm on record battered the Visayas, goes without argument. Even Malacañang itself was forced to admit as much when it said it welcomes criticisms and suggestions. But as became very apparent on the anniversary of the storm, observed in Tacloban and many other places including Manila, sometimes it depends on who is protesting.

Or to put it more correctly, it depends on who is protesting the loudest. And guess who protested the loudest? If you say the leftists, then you are absolutely correct. Leftists from every conceivable leftist organization, many coming from places that were not even hit by Yolanda, descended on areas they knew were scheduled to have protests against the failed government response to Yolanda and there emptied their closets of all the skeletons in their agenda.

The presence of leftists in legitimate protests is the surest thing there is to kill those protests. That is because no matter how legitimate the protests are, and how valid the causes taken up in these protests, most people have grown so sick and tired of these leftists that they simply turn away instead of listening, thus defeating the purpose of protesting in the first place.

Take the case of Tacloban. Tacloban is the face of Yolanda. To this day, many people there still live in tents. Many have not regained the jobs they lost, the schooling of their kids compromised by unrepaired or lost classrooms. Many of these rose up in protest last November 8, the day when in 2013 Yolanda turned their lives upside down. It was easy to recognize the real Taclobanons. You can tell it by their looks. You can tell it by their demeanor.

They were protesting, it is true. But they were protesting in dignity, in keeping with their character as a people. If they were angry, they did not show it. Or if they showed it, they showed it by being there. And then there were the leftists, loud, angry, combative, and very well organized and clearly herded. They had uniform and well-printed placards. And they were shouting slogans of protest involving causes far removed from the issues pertaining to Yolanda.   

Most people turned away except those who, by force of circumstance, had to be there. Those who watched on television swiftly changed channels the moment the familiar images popped on screen. As to the real victims of Yolanda who turned up to protest their betrayal by government, they never realized they were just being used for causes they had nothing to do with and did not even understand, apoliticized as they are.

And that makes for the second tragedy of the Yolanda victims, a year after the original one brought them to their knees. There they were, trying and hoping to bring attention to government and anyone their sad and sorry plight, not expecting that even in such a humble undertaking their cause would still get overtaken and hijacked by those promoting other interests.