Health Group questions the government’s inadequate disaster response

September 28, 2009
Reference : Dr. Julie Caguiat
SOS Spokesperson

Samahang Operasyong Sagip (SOS), a disaster response initiative of various health organizations and groups question where the supposed P10B under the government’s Calamity Assistance and Rehabilitation Effort (CARE) funds apportioned under the General Appropriations Act has gone now that it is mostly needed.

While the National Capital Region and the rest of Luzon were already declared in a state of calamity, a palpable absence of the government’s deployed relief and disaster response teams is still the pervading situation.

According to Dr Julie Caguiat, SOS spokesperson, the wake of the typhoon revealed the sad fate of many poor communities bereft of any assistance. Many communities ravaged by Typhoon Ondoy are still struggling with the loss of loved ones and destruction of their homes and property.

According to reports, affected population nears million and the death toll is already at 240 while tens of thousands are currently in more than 100 evacuation centers.

“Unfortunately the government’s disaster response is sorely inadequate” Caguiat said.

The group hits the media blitz by Malacañang to project its supposed control of the situation, yet the scale of response remains poor and in most cases unavailable. The poor quality of the government’s disaster response further exposes the shallowness of how government boasts of its supposed many accomplishments. Four days have passed and the bulk of the affected population has not received any substantial assistance from the government. The present situation shows that the government really has no systematic and comprehensive disaster response program SOS enjoins all doctors, nurses, health workers, health science students to render their time and service to provide immediate relief for the victims. SOS is currently collecting relief items and organizing a pool of volunteers of health professionals to join scheduled relief and missions in several affected areas.

Dr. Caguiat said that while there are various relief initiatives already being conducted by several groups, the overwhelming scale of the calamity’s devastation imperatively calls for everyone to heed to the needs of our needy compatriots.