It’s up to us

As the scale and scope of devastation and death in the Central Visayas provinces hit by Super Typhoon Yolanda slowly, as the days pass, and painfully become apparent, it is very easy to be paralyzed by the enormity and gravity of it all. The images on television of a landscape totally flattened, with hardly a structure or tree left standing, are shocking. From Guiuan in Eastern Samar to Tacloban City in Leyte, from Daanbantayan in northern Cebu to Coron in Palawan and towns and villages throughout the region, the scene is the same: everywhere a tangle of collapsed houses, toppled trees and electric posts, debris and trash, boats on top of houses, cars perched on tree branches. A friend who had participated in relief work there in early 2005 said the images coming out of Tacloban City remind him of Banda Aceh in Indonesia, which was totally wiped out by the tsunami of December 2004.

My helper, who is from a small town just outside of Roxas City in Capiz, has not heard a word from or about her mother and four siblings. From television footage of the President’s visit to Roxas City she concluded that their house, like all the others, was gone. “Tumba lahat, lahat ng bahay, pati mga niyog (Everything is gone, all the houses, even the coconut trees),” she said. There is a church near their house, and she is hopeful that is where her family has taken shelter. At the moment there is very little, if anything, we can do; so we wait and pray. 

Her experience is, I am sure, replicated hundreds, thousands of times, as people all over the country and the world wonder where and how their family and friends are. Trickles of information come out of the devastation, reports not just of death and desperation but also of courage and kindness. Just the other day I received a text message from a friend who, the day before that, had asked for prayer for two pastors we had not heard from. “ In Coron, Pastor Noy is supporting 4,000 children and 2,600 adults. In Ormoc, Arvin is assisting 1,500 refugees.” These are people who have lost their homes, are themselves hungry and in dire need, but are still reaching out to help others.

Those of us who have been spared the wrath of Yolanda have an obligation – it isn’t even a choice anymore – to help in whatever way and form we can. For sure, the needs are overwhelming, especially considering the other crises that still need to be attended to – the people in Zamboanga whose homes and villages were burned by the rebels during the siege in September, the homes destroyed by the earthquake in Bohol and Cebu last month... But if we don’t help them, who will? Government alone cannot meet all the needs. Big business and NGOs play a big and crucial role, but that is not enough. The needs of our fellow Filipinos will only be met if each one of us – we who have a roof over our heads, a daily change of clothes, food to eat and water to drink – determines to open our hearts and embrace our commonality, and then open our pockets and wallets and share with them in their need from what we have.