Will Pablo intensify Balay-samar rift?

THIS is the question being asked by some quarters after Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas declared in a press conference in Cagayan de Oro City a few weeks ago that he would bring to the attention of President Noynoy Aquino alleged reports that the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA)’s Doppler radar station in Hinatuan, Surigao del Sur was not working on the day typhoon Pablo struck eastern Mindanao last December 4, 2012.

According to online newspaper, the Hinatuan Doppler radar station is “the only radar station in Mindanao” and “has been down for months after it went on line together with other Doppler stations located in Cebu, Subic and Tagaytay.”

Citing Pagasa weather specialist Annalita Fortich, the online newspaper also reported that two days before the storm’s expected landfall, “foreign contractors were trying to fix the Doppler station in time for the arrival of typhoon Pablo.”

“They (contractors) are trying to fix it fast. It might be functioning by tonight,” Fortich was quoted by Minda News as telling members of the Misamis Oriental Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council in the afternoon of Sunday, December 2, 2012.

But during an interview in our radio program “Karambola sa DWIZ,” Pagasa administrator Dr. Nathaniel Servando flatly denied allegations that their Doppler radar station in Hinatuan was out of order at the height of typhoon Pablo. Servando says that although some parts were being installed in the Hinatuan radar station, Pagasa was still able to determine the strength and path of storm, which was why they could give out regular weather advisories. And although the Hinatuan Doppler radar station was not viewable in Pagasa’s Project NOAH (Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards) website, Servando adds that their meteorologists had access to the Doppler radar and was able to monitor and track the typhoon in real-time.

Undoubtedly, Pablo is the strongest – and deadliest – tropical storm to hit the country this year. Classified by international weather forecasters as a Category 5 typhoon (the highest category for a tropical storm) with sustained winds of 160 kilometers per hour, Pablo flattened entire towns, flooded agricultural communities and washed out mining villages.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) estimates that around 5,412,140 Filipinos in 38 cities and 30 provinces in nine regions were affected by Pablo’s rampage.

And with some 2,000 Filipinos dead or missing as of this writing, any suggestion or imputation that Pagasa “dropped the ball” during the onslaught of Pablo would be a serious indictment not only of the weather bureau but also of the leadership and competence of Secretary Mario Montejo of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), the parent agency of Pagasa.

Montejo, however, is no pushover. He is the brother-in-law of Executive Secretary Paquito “Jojo” Ochoa, the purported head of the Samar Group, the alleged faction in Malacañang composed of people closely identified with President Aquino during the 2010 campaign that had Samar Street in Quezon City as its headquarters.

Roxas, on the other hand, is the rumored head of the rival Palace faction, the Balay Group, supposedly named after the DILG Secretary’s ancestral house in Cubao, Quezon City known as “The Balay,” which was the unofficial Liberal Party (LP) headquarters during the 2010 elections. Among its alleged members are LP stalwarts and the Hyatt 10, the high- ranking Arroyo officials who broke away from the former administration at the height of the “Hello Garci” scandal.

True, Roxas may have a legiti- mate concern to bring Montejo to task before President Aquino. But to be fair, the President should also investigate why relief supplies that were supposedly “pre-positioned” for distribution in the affected areas by Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Dinky Soliman – reputedly a Balay comrade – took so long to reach its victims.

More than a week after the storm’s onslaught, several hungry and homeless survivors complained to media that they had yet to receive relief goods from the government. In some communities, people resorted to butchering any available livestock and scavenging for fallen coconut fruits in order to feed themselves. In the coastal town of Cateel, Davao Oriental, public officials reported that locals ransacked a government warehouse and looted shops and groceries in search of food.

There were also reports that residents in other remote villages had taken to barricading the roads to block aid convoys which they thought were by- passing their communities in a desperate bid to obtain relief goods.

With these kinds of scenes playing out in public, we’re left wondering whatever happened to Malacañang’s boast in October last year that it had become more prepared to handle any crisis caused by typhoons?