WHAT STARTED with Haiyan extended to Hagupit. Not just the continuing devastation of Eastern Visayas but the scourge of what has come to be some kind of a conjugal calamity impacting on the whole Filipino nation. The intensity of which corresponding to the typhoon category.
This is the ultrastorm named Mar-Korina. Recall how at the time of Haiyan, Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas made a calamity of himself in dealing with the local government units of the devastated areas, notably Tacloban Mayor Alfred Romualdez.
Soundbytes now immortalized: “You have to be careful because you are a Romualdez and the President is an Aquino.” The mayor asked by Roxas to cede his authority to him – Roxas, before relief, rescue and retrieval operations could ensue in the city buried in debris and littered with decaying bloated bodies.And should Romualdez refuse: “Bahala na kayo sa buhay niyo.”
The other half of the calamitous pair, Korina Sanchez storming thus: “Hindi alam nitong si Andreson Cooper kung ano ang pinagsasabi niya.” Referencing to the CNN anchor’s criticism of government’s bungled response to Haiyan. Sanchez making judgment in the comfort of the ABS-CBN studios.
Cooper broadcasting amid the stench of death and decay in the howling wasteland that was Leyte. Onto Hagupit now. Sanchez on national television, expressing prayerful hope that the superstorm spared the Philippines: “Kaya pa natin idasal yan para lumihis.”
To co-anchor Noli de Castro’s wish that the typhoon’s impact be split with the other direction that was Japan, Sanchez responded: “Puwede bang sa kanila na ang lahat?” And when De Castro said hopefully not, Sanchez: “Sa kanila na lang lahat. Parang mas kaya nila.”
Sheer schadenfreude. Total tactlessness. Insipid insensitivity. What about Roxas? Yeah, he was on ground zero directing operations, taking charge of assessments of death and destruction which, two days after Hagupit’s first of many landfalls, remained unassessed.
Why, even the casualty figures conflict – the Red Cross had 23 fatalities as of early Tuesday, the National Disaster Risk and Reduction Management Office had an “official list” of 2 dead.What became the ultimate poster picture of the Hagupit devastation though was helmetless Roxas falling off a motorcycle in Eastern Samar.
The presumptive presidential bet of the Liberal Party presumed to be monitoring the situation in the typhoon-affected areas. Yet another publicity gimmick – the netizens instantly ridiculed and dismissed Roxas’ fall.
The latest in a string of epal- itis that started with Mister Palengke at the time Roxas was GMA’s trade secretary, morphing to Boy Padyak when he aspired for the presidency before reducing himself to be PNoy’s veep, evolving to Mister Kargador when he carried a sack of rice in a police raid at some warehouses hoarding the cereal, to Boy Traffic when he tried to untangle a traffic gridlock at Commonwealth Ave. during the President’s last SONA, to Mister Commuter when he rode the MRT, ostensibly for showand- tell.
With his motorcycle fall, it’s now Boy Semplang for Roxas. Most fitting of his myriad monikers, in keeping with his epic failure in dealing with disasters, moreso in his non-performance in all the government posts he has held – trade secretary amid the soaring prices of commodities, transportation and communications secretary amid the dysfunction and degradation of airports, public transports, the LRT, the MRT which he bequeathed to his more dysfunctional successor Secretary Pabaya, interior and local government secretary amid the meltdown of the PNP.
Indeed, Boy Semplang – ominous of a Philippines under a Roxas presidency. Add the Korina factor there and double the jeopardy that shall rise out of this ridiculously horrifying conjugal calamity.
