EDITORIAL - Davide better than PNoy: He faced the people

Patience is clearly the wrong word for Cebu Governor Hilario Davide III to use in addressing the people of Bantayan who, for one year now, have been waiting for the shelter assistance promised them by government after super typhoon Yolanda wiped out their homes and everything they had -- from loved ones to cherised dreams. Perhaps patience is even the wrong virtue to teach under the circumstances.

Davide was in Bantayan to take part in commemorative activities marking the first anniversary of Yolanda, the strongest typhoon ever to hit land on record, which destroyed many parts of the Visayas on November 8, 2013. In explaining why his hands are tied (the assistance was promised by the national government, not by Capitol) Davide asked the typhoon victims for a little more patience.

It is easy to be patient if you have been waiting for only a week, or a month, or even two or three months. But it has already been a year since the typhoon. That is simply too much for anyone to wait, especially if what is being awaited is something as vital and important as a decent roof over the head. One may be able to wait for a year if what is being awaited is more of a luxury rather than a necessity, like the One Direction concert for 2015 whose tickets have already sold out.

When you have been roofless for a year, or have been living on tents on the kindness of neighbors, being asked to be patient is the most ridiculous situation into which you can be thrust. It is not that Davide is to be blamed for the unpardonable delay. But at least he should have been a little more circumspect in what he asks from a people who have lost everything they had.

One thing that can be said for Davide, though, is that he is a whole lot better than his president and partymate, Noynoy Aquino. At least Davide had the guts to face his constituents, even if all he had to tell them was the bad news that they will have to wait even more. Aquino, on the other hand, chickened out on Tacloban on knowing that the people there have grown so angry they were waiting for him not in welcome but in protest.

For all it is worth, Davide has to be admired for his guts, and the honesty that came with it. When you are a leader, you need to face your people regardless of the circumstances. In fact, it is more important for a leader to face the people in bad and desperate times because that is precisely the time when people need to be reassured the most. It is often by the presence of their leader that a desperate people can find strength and the will to go on.

Alas, Aquino is not of that mold. For while it is true that he visited other devastated areas such as Guiuan, Eastern Samar, he purposely skipped Tacloban when in fact Tacloban is the face of Yolanda. If Aquino had to be anywhere at all for the anniversary of Yolanda, he should have been in Tacloban. But he was not. He opted to be where people were less angry. There is no leadership in running away from the challenges of governance.