Philippines aid scandal

subseastu · Dec 12, 2013

It is a real shame. I notice that recently I've been fairly negative about things out here, I wonder if my attitude would be the same if the typhoon hadn't struck and life was carrying on as normal? Maybe I'd be fairly happy to enjoy the heat, cheapish beer, sweating and the people. Don't get me wrong I do like the Philippines and the people. They are (generally, if you don't get too involved with the day to day stuff and end up being the target for loans etc) kind, happy, resilient, hard working and thoughtful.

I'm reasonably happy to be out here but this last month has highlighted the greed and corruption that exists here by a certain few and I include the church in this as well. They should know and do better and in my mind are worse than the government. I've lost count of the grand churches I've passed here that are built in the middle of slums and poor housing. "Gods will" my arse. They are as corrupt, power hungry and greedy as the government but they pray on peoples conscience.

Anon220806 · Dec 12, 2013

subseastu said: ↑

It is a real shame. I notice that recently I've been fairly negative about things out here, I wonder if my attitude would be the same if the typhoon hadn't struck and life was carrying on as normal? Maybe I'd be fairly happy to enjoy the heat, cheapish beer, sweating and the people. Don't get me wrong I do like the Philippines and the people. They are (generally, if you don't get too involved with the day to day stuff and end up being the target for loans etc) kind, happy, resilient, hard working and thoughtful.

I'm reasonably happy to be out here but this last month has highlighted the greed and corruption that exists here by a certain few and I include the church in this as well. They should know and do better and in my mind are worse than the government. I've lost count of the grand churches I've passed here that are built in the middle of slums and poor housing. "Gods will" my arse. They are as corrupt, power hungry and greedy as the government but they pray on peoples conscience.
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Being positive, if you hadnt opted for spending some time there, you wouldnt have been any the wiser about Micswell Coffee... And nor would I!

My wifes friends husband has been a rig mechanic on land rigs for most of his life. Though he is currently in Houston involved in the building of 4 new rigs. A bit like you, after his stint he has been able to live wherever he chooses and he spent 14 years in the Philippines. He seems to know so much about so much in the Philippines, even now that he has walked away from it. I will ask him about the coffee when he gets back as I just know he will have a funny story or two about it.

subseastu · Dec 13, 2013

JohnAsh said: ↑

Being positive, if you hadnt opted for spending some time there, you wouldnt have been any the wiser about Micswell Coffee... And nor would I!

My wifes friends husband has been a rig mechanic on land rigs for most of his life. Though he is currently in Houston involved in the building of 4 new rigs. A bit like you, after his stint he has been able to live wherever he chooses and he spent 14 years in the Philippines. He seems to know so much about so much in the Philippines, even now that he has walked away from it. I will ask him about the coffee when he gets back as I just know he will have a funny story or two about it.
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The coffee thing has actually more than made up for everything and I cant wait to see the benefits. I will be shipping large amounts to the UK soon as well. This time next year we'll be millionaires!

We're here for a reason and at the minute I cant see us staying longer than required. Having said that the wife keeps making noise about staying. She's changes her mind more than the wind changes direction! This morning we went for a walk with the dog around the top part of Gordon Heights where we stay. There are some quite nice houses been built at the top where I'm told land is 1000peso / square meter or less!!!

There is a reasonable house that has been built by the manager of one of the local supermarkets. I must say that market managers obviously do very well out here and are I no way skimming the tills to pay for their luxury housing!!!

Markham · Dec 15, 2013

Today's Mail on Sunday reports on further about aid not getting to those who need it - "Typhoon bandits: How British aid to thousands of victims in the Philippines disaster has been stolen by thieves".

The old lady clutches her granddaughter’s hand and weeps as she describes the torment of watching dozens of foreign aid trucks rumble past her ruined shack every day – while she struggles to survive with no food and no roof over her head.

‘I am so unhappy,’ says farmer’s widow Nena Abing, 78, whose home in the Philippines was destroyed in the November 8 super-typhoon.

‘We have had no help at all from anyone – no food and no shelter. I have to go up the mountainside to dig up vegetables to eat.’

Foreign aid, including much of the £70 million-plus pledged by Britain, has been pouring into this benighted eastern corner of the Philippines in the five weeks since it was struck by Haiyan, the most powerful typhoon to ever make landfall, killing 6,000 in its trail.

But The Mail on Sunday can reveal that vital food, shelter and emergency supplies are still failing to get through to the people who need them – many of whom are still homeless and starving.

Last week this newspaper revealed how foreign aid was being stockpiled and diverted by corrupt local officials and how a British expatriate had received death threats after challenging the handling of aid in Hernani, Eastern Samar.

A day later, Oxfam admitted there were ‘serious gaps’ in the month-old relief effort while the UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said she was concerned aid was still not reaching people in remote areas.

More than £250 million has been pledged to the international relief effort. But in interviews with people in the provinces of Samar and Leyte last week, we were told of acute food shortages and a lack of shelter in towns and villages within easy reach of the hub of the global relief effort in Tacloban.

In village after village, those who had lost their homes and livelihoods told us they knew foreign aid had arrived – but that it was being unevenly or unfairly distributed, leaving some of the poorest and worst affected to suffer.

Food and shelter equipment originally reached Ms Abing’s district weeks ago. But in a scenario described with appalling regularity in Leyte and Samar, getting aid to the affected areas is only part of the problem. Wrestling it from the clutches of local officials – the mayors and village elders known as barangay captains – was sometimes proving difficult.

Ms Abing’s home in the mountain village of Visaris is close to a main road from Ormoc port. Within days of the typhoon, goods were being transported to the shattered city of Tacloban, where thousands of aid workers are now based.

But by Friday afternoon, the only help Ms Abing had received was from the crew of a passing aid truck who took pity on her and threw out a bundle of old rice sacks she used to replace her missing roof.

‘Our barangay captain has a list of favoured people who he will give food and relief goods to, but I am not on that list so I get nothing,’ she said. ‘The captains are only nice to you and they only look after you when they want your vote.’

In a village on the other side of the mountain, mother-of-nine Bienvenida Celelonio told us: ‘The captain keeps most of the food for himself and only gives a little of it out to people like us. Why would he waste it on us when we are poor and have no voice?’

In Palo – a typhoon-shattered community six miles from Tacloban that last week had a fleeting visit from pop star Justin Bieber – families living just off the main road said they had received no foreign aid.

‘We only get a tiny amount of food from the local government – 1kg of rice and two tins of sardines per household once a week,’ said Brigida Abella, 72, who lives with five members of her family in a house left barely standing.

Meanwhile, in the San Miguel district – 30 minutes’ drive inland from Tacloban – graffiti across a food van in the middle of the village says accusingly: ‘We need food, Mayor.’

‘People are angry,’ said resident Christine Lagarde, 29. ‘The food is coming in from foreign aid agencies but the officials have been keeping it for themselves.

‘We’ve heard that they’re storing it in their own homes while we don’t have enough to eat. When we ask our mayor about it, she told us to be patient. She said everyone will be fed – eventually.’

On Friday afternoon, the mayor, Cheryl Enrica Esperas, was at the municipal hall presiding over the delivery and distribution to a large crowd of villagers of a lorry load of sanitation kits from a US charity.

When I asked her about the residents’ complaints, smartly dressed Ms Esperas laughed and told me: ‘Please don’t believe these people. The food aid is not in my house. I couldn’t eat it all myself. That slogan was put up there by my political opponents who lost to me in the election six months ago.’

But along the battered coast we heard similar complaints. In Marabut, mother-of-six Evelyn Piniada, 49, said: ‘Sometimes the local government bring food once a week. But when they come, what they bring is barely enough for one day. Our government has abandoned us.’

Further north in Hernani, one of the worst-hit towns on the eastern seaboard, most homes have lost their roofs, and corrugated tin sheets from private donors are being brought in to rebuild homes.

But residents told us that officials organised a raffle in the village square last Tuesday to decide who would get a new roof. ‘They took the roofs they wanted for themselves first and then they raffled the rest as if they were doing us a big favour,’ complained mother-of-three Fatima Barcial. ‘It was an insult.’

British relief workers in Tacloban confirmed there were problems with local officials holding up or diverting aid.

One worker, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: ‘There are a lot of good barangay captains out there. Unfortunately there are a lot of bad ones too.’

Oxfam’s spokesman in Tacloban, Ian Bray, said the charity had been ‘meticulous’ in its distribution of aid and monitoring of where it went to avoid abuse. But he added that the scale of the disaster meant it was inevitable not everyone would receive the help they needed.

A spokesman for the Disasters Emergency Committee said it did not distribute aid through government channels in the Philippines.

On the ground, charities worked with local officials to get aid to communities, it added.

While some international aid is being blocked or failing to get through, the Union Jack is flying in villages along the typhoon-battered coast of the eastern Philippines.

Mini ‘tent cities’ of heavy-duty green tents stamped with ‘UK Aid – from the British people’ have sprung up along the shattered coastlines of Samar and Eastern Samar, offering shelter to some of the four million people made homeless.

The tents were delivered to families who had been sleeping in the open or crammed into the homes or relatives or neighbours for three weeks.

In one village, Paku Kinapundan, 100 British tents line the hillside running down to the coast. ‘Britain has been good to us. Before this, we had no home left,’ said Maria Paz Marawizi, 25, who is living with her twin five-month-old daughters and two older children in one tent.

‘The British aid workers came directly to our village and helped us put up the tents. It only took one day and they were gone.

‘Our house was destroyed and we were sleeping on the floor of my relatives’ house with 15 other people.’

In neighbouring Viga, the British tents have been used as homes and as a temporary community office to process claims from residents.

‘In the next village, they have tents from the Chinese Red Cross but we are happy because the British tents are better quality,’ said a village elder in Viga.’

A total of 3,317 tents have been delivered to the Philippines by Britain along with 18,230 hygiene kits, 42,459 plastic sheets, 20,912 shelter kits and 27,000 blankets.
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Markham · Dec 19, 2013

Here's what an American who lives in Ormoc, Leyte wrote on an Expat site recently:

The typhoon showed the world just how feeble, incompetent, apathetic and corrupt the Philippines really is. Everyone kind of new this already but after the typhoon it was under the spotlight for all to see. To me, even worse than the overall incompetence of the government was the politicizing and plundering of the relief goods and funds by local politicians. The actions of the political elites in Ormoc was especially disgusting. I'm no longer sure if I even want to live in the Phils now. The things we saw, how this government (national and local) reacted and the exploitation of so many people suffering so that a few could line their pockets opened my eyes to what this place really is. And its obvious now that this country is never going to change.

The typhoon was a chance for the Philippines to come together, stop the corruption for at least a little while and show the world the positive spirit of the Filipinos. Well....what the world saw instead was the reality of this place and its not pretty. I owe it to my kids to let them grow up in the best social environment possible to not only enhance their future possibilities in life but to also instill the most positive character in them I can. Parents can only do so much in the home. The culture and nuances of the society we live in has a tremendous influence on the adults our children will become. I fear what they'd turn out to be in this cesspool of corruption and indifference just so I can save a few bucks.
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Anon220806 · Dec 19, 2013

Here's what an American who lives in Ormoc, Leyte wrote on an Expat site recently:

The typhoon showed the world just how feeble, incompetent, apathetic and corrupt the Philippines really is. Everyone kind of new this already but after the typhoon it was under the spotlight for all to see. To me, even worse than the overall incompetence of the government was the politicizing and plundering of the relief goods and funds by local politicians. The actions of the political elites in Ormoc was especially disgusting. I'm no longer sure if I even want to live in the Phils now. The things we saw, how this government (national and local) reacted and the exploitation of so many people suffering so that a few could line their pockets opened my eyes to what this place really is. And its obvious now that this country is never going to change.

The typhoon was a chance for the Philippines to come together, stop the corruption for at least a little while and show the world the positive spirit of the Filipinos. Well....what the world saw instead was the reality of this place and its not pretty. I owe it to my kids to let them grow up in the best social environment possible to not only enhance their future possibilities in life but to also instill the most positive character in them I can. Parents can only do so much in the home. The culture and nuances of the society we live in has a tremendous influence on the adults our children will become. I fear what they'd turn out to be in this cesspool of corruption and indifference just so I can save a few bucks.
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How poignant an observation that is.

Aromulus · Dec 19, 2013

I fear that we haven't heard the last and the worst of it all....

Anon220806 · Dec 19, 2013

Aromulus said: ↑

I fear that we haven't heard the last and the worst of it all....
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I can just see the Panorama Documentary Special in my minds eye...

Markham · Dec 19, 2013

JohnAsh said: ↑

I can just see the Panorama Documentary Special in my minds eye...
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Unlikely the BBC would make it, Channel 4's Dispatches on the other hand might.

Aromulus · Dec 19, 2013

JohnAsh said: ↑

I can just see the Panorama Documentary Special in my minds eye...
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Markham said: ↑

Unlikely the BBC would make it, Channel 4's Dispatches on the other hand might.
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I am not so sure that any investigative reporters would be welcome to film such a blatant abuse but would open them to be targets of hired thugs and assassins.

As we already know, the Philippines are not very kind to members of the media, especially if they put their noses where, it is perceived in some quarters, they shouldn't...

Two blokes on a motorbike......... A few bullets........... Nobody caught for it........problem solved..........

Anon220806 · Jan 19, 2014

Aromulus said: ↑

I am not so sure that any investigative reporters would be welcome to film such a blatant abuse but would open them to be targets of hired thugs and assassins.

As we already know, the Philippines are not very kind to members of the media, especially if they put their noses where, it is perceived in some quarters, they shouldn't...

Two blokes on a motorbike......... A few bullets........... Nobody caught for it........problem solved..........
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I think Ruby Wax will do it...

Markham · Dec 19, 2013

Imelda Marcos .... a senior member of the Romualdez clan, wife of the most corrupt politician this country has had the misfortune to have govern it and the owner of a huge mansion just outside Tacloban which did not completely escape the ravages of the typhoon. But the only money she and her family have stumped-up is to pay for the repairs but not one centavo for the poor victims, her neighbours. Much of that money, by the way, was reportedly raised by her daughter, Imee, who's the governor for Ilocos Norte on Luzon.

KeithAngel · Dec 19, 2013

What a terrible place to live Mark

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