EDITORIAL - Going north

The number of people volunteering to help and the amount of relief goods being donated to those suffering from the quake in northern Cebu is certainly heartening. This is what bayanihan is all about.

However, too much of everything is never a good thing, and right now too many people are heading north to help that it has caused traffic on the very narrow road leading to Bogo City and the other towns affected by the quake.

To solve the traffic problem there are suggestions to centralize donations: turn over everything to the authorities and let them sort it out and bring it there.

We understand the apprehension of some donors and people with good intentions. For one, trust in our government to get things done isn’t exactly high. For another, there may be specific people they want to help like friends or family members. But if everyone who just wants to help started going north then it’s going to look like when the Israelites packed up to leave Egypt.

But of course it gets worse. Many are looking to go north just to take advantage of the situation. This isn’t the time for politicians to film themselves being good, or for content creators to show themselves helping others just so they have something to post online, or to take the entire family on a field trip.

Don’t forget that as of this writing power hasn’t been restored to most of Bogo City and the north itself is still experiencing aftershocks.

For now, centralizing relief goods is the better idea as opposed to just letting anyone and everyone go north and help. At least the government has contact with purok, barangay, town, and city officials who know who need help most and where to give it.

There is another issue with just going north. Not many are familiar with the routes there and so far there have been two traffic accidents involving vehicles taking relief goods there.

Then there is the elephant in the room; that road north. If anything else this disaster shows us that the highway north must be widened. Either that or they explore other routes and means to bring many people and many things northward quickly.