Metro-wide quake drill can best test readiness

It was so plain to followers of reports on the P1.2- billion helicopter scam at the Dept. of National Defense. As soon as whistleblower alias “Joey” went public last week, there rang in talk- radio a chorus of bashing. Joey turned out a she, Rhodora Alvarez, who has leaked to the press the supply of 21 old defective aircraft under the military modernization. Supposedly, the media jukeboxes blared, Alvarez just has an axe to grind. Allegedly the US supplier, Rice Aircraft Services Inc., had fired her as sales agent for overspending. Purportedly that angered her, for she lost a 15- percent commission.

The badmouthing choir must have an orchestrator. And when Defense Undersecretary Fernando Manalo himself echoed the chorus in a broadcast interview, people got an idea who it was. Manalo is one of the officials linked to the mess. He had negotiated the deal with Rice Aircraft behind closed doors, after the firm was disqualified not once or twice, but thrice from public biddings. He had then induced Defense Sec. Voltaire Gazmin to sign the contract. The rest is history. Only nine of 21 choppers were delivered. All were defective and, because lacking spare parts, couldn’t be flown. Gazmin has had to scrap the purchase in shame.

There’s something to be said about the accused who ascribe all sorts of dirty motives to whistleblowers: they’re likely guilty. That’s what then- Ombudsman Simeon Marcelo said in 2004 about army comptroller- general Carlos Garcia’s plundering of P302 million. Only God and the individual know what’s in his heart of hearts. To speculate on motives is only to divert attention from the wrongdoing.

Motive matters not. It could be jilted romance or revenge. What matters are that the exposé is true and backed up by evidence to merit conviction. It’s futile too to expect saintliness from whistleblowers. Chavit Singson was no angel out to strike fear of the Lord among sinners when he exposed Joseph Estrada’s Jueteng- gate in 2000. For weeks before that he was fuming at being eased out of the jueteng take by Bingo Two- Balls, then sensed an assassination plot, so went public to save his skin. But he had the juice to put an ex- President behind bars.

On the DND helicopter scandal the media, public, and prosecutors would do well to scrutinize what Alvarez has to say at the Senate Blue- Ribbon inquiry. Would she be able to prove her claim that Manalo had favored Rice Aircraft from the start, despite incomplete submissions? Is it true that money changed hands? There’s already one thing sure here. The purchase of refurbished UH- 1 helicopters under modernization was a sham. The aircraft are older than the pilots who will fly them. Most attendees at last week’s Earthquake Resilience Conference in Makati had heard it all before. In case of a “relatively mild” magnitude7.2 temblor in Greater Manila, expect the following:

• 31,000 instantly would be crushed dead, and 126,000 seriously would be injured;

• Another 18,000 would perish in 700 simultaneous quake- triggered fires;

• Nearly half of homes and buildings would collapse, requiring evacuation of three million people;

• Bridges would topple, and rubble would block roads – cutting off families, and rescue- relief teams;

• At least 70 percent of water, electricity, and telecommunication utilities would be cut off for days;

• Most at risk in the unimaginable P2.25- trillion ruin would be the four- six million urban poor.

Aware of the grim scenarios, the bankers, industrialists, property developers, mall magnates, logisticians, educators, and newsmen present wanted to hear other things. Like, what have national and regional officials planned about it? And if they already have plans, why not test and improve them the best way possible – via region- wide quake drills?

The West Valley Fault is likely to trigger “the Big One.” The deep earth crack, about a hundred kilometers long, transects 40 barangays in Quezon City, Marikina, Pasig, Makati, Taguig, and Muntinlupa cities; and 30 more in Bulacan, Laguna, and Cavite provinces. Volcanologists note that it has moved four times in the last 1,400 years. The last was 357 years ago in 1658. Give or take 50 years, the next one could be NOW.

Not only areas along the fault line would suffer from movement. Liquefaction could sink residentialcommercial zones along Manila Bay; Manila’s Chinatown could disappear. Disbelievers would do well to read up on coastal Dagupan City in the aftermath of 1990’ s magnitude7.8 tremor.

Two officials are on top of the disaster preparedness: Undersecretary Alex Pama, executive director of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, and Chairman Francis Tolentino, Metro Manila Development Authority. They aver to have trained 6,000 officials in Greater Manila for instant action when “the Big One” strikes. But what’s 6,000 out of 12 million to be affected by it?

Only a region- wide drill – two drills per year, in fact, one daytime, another at night – can truly prepare everyone for it. Such drills should be announced weeks prior in the triand social media. At a designated time, electricity, water, telecoms, and commuter trains will be shut off for, say, two hours to make everyone feel the seriousness of the real thing. Barangay and street leaders would lead residents out of homes to safe open spaces. For priority rehearsal are the care of infants and toddlers, the sick and elderly, and women. Needing simulation, among others, are the alertness of hospital staffs, firemen, and policemen; the swiftness of volunteers to clear the roads for rescue- relief teams; and the dispatch of troops from north and south of the region.

Pama and Tolentino lament that during pocket drills in certain cities, motorists cursed them for causing traffic, and builders for bringing down property values with scary scenarios. The two must learn to ignore the spoilers. The Philippines is rated the fourth most quake- prone country, next only to Nepal, India, and Turkey. In fact, a long- delayed international conference on quake preparedness finally was held in Nepal in April – then struck a week later the magnitude- 7.9 temblor that killed 6,800 people. “Exposés: Investigative Reporting for Clean Government” is now available online. My compilation of selected exposés tackle issues that fester to this day: pork barrel, China’s maritime expansionism and poaching, election fraud, military corruption, ZTE Corp.’ s NBN and Diwalwal scams, the NAIA- 3 construction anomalies, and the Memo of Agreement- Ancestral Domain with Moro separatists.

To order the e- book or paper version, click to the Amazon link: http:// www. amazon. com/ Expos-s- InvestigativeReporting- Clean- Governmentebook/ dp/ B00EPX01BG/ ref= tmm_ kin_ swatch_ 0?_ encoding= UTF8& sr= 81& qid= 1400577737

The paper version also is available at National Bookstore branches.

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