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Submitted by mannythepogi on Wed, 10/21/2009 - 15:15.Patrollers score politicos using relief ops in campaign
By Julie Javellana-Santos, abs-cbnNEWS.com | 10/19/2009 1:02 PM
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After calling attention to the conditions in various parts of Metro Manila and its surrounding areas following the onslaught of typhoon Ondoy (international codename Ketsana), Patrollers turned their attention on politicians seen to have used disaster relief operations as an opportunity to engage in “premature campaigning.”
Among those who earned jeers from Boto Patrollers due to their conduct during the relief operations were former President Joseph Estrada and Senator Manuel Villar.
Erap tickets
Estrada distributed tickets for relief goods to residents of San Mateo, Rizal, were as if September 28, 10 residents died and some 19,524 families or 97,620 individuals were affected by Ondoy.
Most of the San Mateo evacuees were brought to local schools. It was to these residents that former President Joseph Estrada distributed tickets for relief goods.
Estrada recently announced that he is definitely vying once again for the presidency.
A photograph of one of the tickets, which bore the former president’s slogan, signature and photograph, was posted on botomoipatrolmo.multiply.com by Multiply user urbanfinds who branded the deed as “shameful.”
Responding to the post, Eddieracho, another Multiply user, said, “all politicians take advantage of the situation. They do not choose the time! They are no different from kidnappers or the Abu Sayyaf! The ransom they ask is the vote which should be given in exchange for some food! Shame on these politicians!”
Multiply user hanspotterd13, on the other hand said, “let’s face the fact that politicking is already a part of our culture. Politics is always a part of any situation. It looks like it will always be present. It is time to change the culture of politicking we have gotten used to. And to the politicians – this is not the time to campaign!”
Distribution system
Estrada spokesman Margaux Salcedo told Boto Mo iPatrol Mo, however, that the tickets were merely issued as a means to retain order in the distribution of relief goods.
“This way, the goods will be given to those who are really in need instead of to those who line up repeatedly to receive aid which should go to the needy,” she said.
Salcedo added that Estrada has been doing this in all relief operations he conducted ever since he was mayor of San Juan in the 70s.
“It has always been their policy,” she said. “Besides it’s unfair because he gave out more than half a million pesos in relief goods.”
She also added that “everyone who gives out stuff also have their names on the stuff they give out” naming other individuals and groups including Sagip Kapamilya.
Villar’s rice
Senator Villar, another presidential aspirant, also earned jeers for distributing food, rice and mineral water with orange stickers on them either bearing his name and photograph.
Patroller Hans Kristian posted a photograph of a rice pack with the Villar sticker on the BMPM Multiply group page. The packs, he said, were distributed in Biñan, Laguna.
In his post, Hans Kristian asked if the goods should be considered “genuine help or merely campaigning?”
He voiced a concern that these efforts might impact on the choices people make in May 2010. “It will be ingrained in the minds of those who got the relief goods he donated that the rice which they ate after Typhoon Ondoy came from him,” he pointed out.
“I also want my fellow Filipinos to know that even if he is genuinely helping out, they shouldn’t have a debt to pay because to help is part of being a leader,” Hans Kristian said.
In a statement sent to abs-cbnNEWS, Villar deplored the fact that several quarters were criticizing his initiatives to extend help to victims of Typhoon Ondoy.
“Distributing relief packs with my name and picture on it is not something I should be ashamed of, or make excuses for,” Villar said. Besides, he added, if the victims knew where the relief goods came from, they would be assured “that the contents are safe to eat or to use.”
Like Estrada, Villar said it was his duty as an elected official to help.
Big help
Campaigning or not, however, Patrollers conceded that the efforts of politicians also went a long way to help those in serious need.
Hans Kristian noted that even though Villar’s efforts might already be considered campaigning, it’s still a big help “because he is giving away rice.” He added, “thanks anyway because some relief goods have reached us in Biñan. No matter who it’s from, we will accept it with open hearts no matter if his intentions were clean or not because in times like these, our need supercedes all.”
Multiply user edleedreams said Villar should also be thanked for his little effort unlike other politicians who have so many tarpaulins on every street corner but disappear in times of calamity or hide in the city hall.
“Let us just accept (the rice) now but the elections is another thing,” he said.
Multiply user cesar26lag also said as much in a post he wrote on Oct 2. “Ok lang yan maski namumulitika.... tumutulong, yung iba nga namumulitika na ala na man tinutulong.”
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