Intl media hits Aquino admin for slow relief distribution

Members of the international media covering the effects of super typhoon Yolanda in Visayas have slammed the Aquino administration for its slow distribution of relief goods and aid to the victims, a television report said Thursday.

 

GMA News TV's News To Go said Anderson Cooper of CNN said in a post on his Twitter account on November 12 that "there is no real evidence of organized recovery or relief" in Tacloban City.

 

"The search and rescue never materialized," he further said.

 

He added that "it is demolition and not a construction job here."

 

He also noted that he has yet to see a large Philippine military presence in the city.

 

Cooper also said that the people in Tacloban have great dignity and deserve better than what they have gotten.

 

The television report also quoted Jon Donnision of BBC as saying that "there does not yet seem to be an effective operation to get help to those in need." He described Tacloban City as one of the worst affected cities.

 

At a press briefing in Malacañang Wednesday, Cabinet Secretary Jose Rene Almendras admitted that "there have been some difficult comments also from the international press, pero okay lang ‘yon, ganyan ang buhay e. All I can say is we don’t claim to be perfect."

 

"We are really trying our very best and so far the things we are doing seem to be effective. It’s just that we have not seen anything at the magnitude that we are seeing now. We were talking of a few thousand families in ‘Pablo’. This is hundreds of thousands already, so the magnitude po is big," he said.

 

He said President Benigno Aquino III met with his Cabinet Tuesday night to refine the master plan on disaster and relief operations.

 

"There are so many details that need to be ironed out (but) the general framework is set. Now, for every logistics center there’s a different plan, because you have a different plan how to get people in, how to deliver, for example, the sacks of rice," he said.

 

"This is beginning to come out… This will come out to be one of the largest logistic and relief operations that the Philippine government has ever done in history and the President wanted to make sure that we have aligned everything," said Almendras. —Amita O. Legaspi/KG, GMA News