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Filipinos and Lessons Never Learned

Up to what degree has the Filipinos learned about coping with ever recurring disasters?

Trending in the news these days are reports of horrible ground-shaking in Mindanao reaching Luzon and the Visayas
along with the piteous status of the victims during the earthquakes’ aftermath. Residents are begging for food along the
roads. Task forces of different missions are formed by the government to address the sudden influx of the people’s
needs. Relief foundations are coming over to the severely affected provinces in the “Land of Promise” to extend
assistance. Several government officials and city government offices together with other public and private institutions
are sending millions of monetary aid – all these to shed light in the eyes of the mournful victims of the strong magnitude
earthquakes that destroy the lives and properties of the Mindanaoans.

Horrific disasters. Mainstream. Disasters like the series of earthquakes in Mindanao and a few in CALABARZON and
Guiuan, Samar are not new. Being a country in the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Philippines is expected to be prone to various
calamities like strong typhoons and earthquakes. Consequently, Filipinos are supposed to be ever ready. Amidst
frequent tests of vulnerabilities, same things happen with almost total destruction, even in places that are commonly
visited by typhoons and areas with histories of strong earthquakes. This has become a cycle. Was the cycle ever placed
to a halt? Were there successful attempts?

About a year ago, there was a proposal from the House of Representatives for the creation of the Department of
Disaster Reliance (DDR). This idea has gone through several rejections. It is unquestionable that the country needs to
create more measures towards disaster resilience and preparedness. The government’s actions and decisions are
detrimental. With the pressing occurrences of major earthquakes affecting the Southern Philippines, the House now
rushes the passage of disaster agency bill (House Bill No. 4), thus, the creation of Emergency Response Department
(ERD). This proposed measure would rededicate a certain department that would respond to emergencies and
calamities not just short, but long term effectivity.

Aside from putting the burden on the government alone, the existing traits and attitudes of the Filipino people became a
big factor. Filipinos, known for their natural resilience manifested after a cataclysmic event, are like birds able to rise
with smiles on their faces. Conversely, on another perspective, it is not just in this phase the dilemma is examined.
Cognizant of the traits like mañana habit (procrastinating), ningas cogon (leaving one’s work either half-baked or
unfinished), and bahala na (fatalistic attitude) are persistent up to this day. The manifestations of these attributes,
though small, are detrimental in managing disastrous situations. There are instances when warnings are given ahead of
time and people living in low-lying areas are asked to evacuate yet they resist, thinking that conditions will not worsen
immediately. NDRRMC used to send warnings through text messages whenever calamities are expected. Filipinos tend
to rely solely on external rather than self help, and by believing that faith alone saves.

Without disregarding the efforts made by the government and other institutions, it is undeniable that solutions given
are short-term, inconsistent, and passive. Thankfully, organizations and multi-sectoral bodies are ready to lend a hand
whenever Philippines is slapped by problems of vulnerability and resiliency.

Up to what degree, then, has the Filipinos learned about coping with ever recurring disasters?
Critique

‘Filipinos and Lessons Never Learned’ is an opinion article that tries to tackle the persistent problems of the Filipino’s
resilience and his attitude towards the constant bombardment of nature’s wrath on the Philippines. Given the multiple
and successive series of earthquakes that have occurred recently in Mindanao, this paper provides a timely look into the
Filipino struggle with relatively unavoidable calamities, while also providing context as to how the Philippine
government deals, or attempts to deal, with these issues.

This opinion article categorically attempts to talk about two main factors: the Filipino government during calamities and
the Filipino people during calamities. It provides what the government has done for the relief of Mindanao given the
recent earthquakes, both in the context of immediate and long-term relief, while also providing the situation of the
stricken Filipinos themselves. As expected in articles tackling calamities in the Philippines, this also includes the common
stereotype of the Filipino ‘resilience’, while also including the negative stereotypes of the typical Filipino. The authors
attempt to synthesize a critique of the Filipino people in conjunction with the Philippine government when faced with
recurring disasters that occur on a massive scale.

The article itself is relatively simple. It makes no attempt to bombard its reader with multiple statistics and other
citations in order to bolster its simple point. However, it may come out as a little too conservative. The authors may
have considered including slightly more, clearer data regarding disasters in the Philippines, given that there are many. It
also claims that the government has taken “detrimental” actions during calamities, yet fails to provide any context or
evidence to support this claim.

There are also scientific errors in this opinion article. For one, it has stated that “the Philippines is expected to be prone
to various calamities like strong typhoons and earthquakes (due to being situated in the Pacific Ring of Fire)”. However,
this isn’t the case. The Pacific Ring of Fire is an area of increased tectonic activity that runs along the ridges of the Pacific,
and consequently, the Philippines. This makes volcanic and seismic activity more extreme and more common in the
areas that it runs along, hence why countries along the Pacific Ring of Fire have numerous active volcanoes and
experience more earthquakes than countries outside the ring. The Philippines is not, however, prone to typhoons due to
the ring of fire. Instead, this is simply a consequence of the country being situated right next to the Pacific Ocean. The
warm waters of the Pacific are a perfect area for typhoons to form all year-round, and the Earth’s natural spin causes
these formed typhoons to travel westward to countries like Taiwan, Mainland China, Japan, and the Philippines. All of
this, however, is just a small, nit-picky clarification of the article, and not a major fault of the article itself.

The critique that may be provided for this article can’t be anything major. The faults are only relatively few, confined to
some minor grammatical errors, scientific errors, unsupported claims, and undefined jargon. It is still a relatively good
take on the time-old adage of “Filipino resilience”, and it deserves praise for not politicizing the issue it pertains, an
impressive feat for an article that deals with an easily politicized national issue. It leads to a good wrap-up, urging its
reader to ponder where the Filipino is now in the given context, and begs the question of what exactly is the true
meaning of ‘resilience’.

I have attached a revised and copy-read version of ‘Filipinos and Lessons Never Learned’ below. Corrections are in bold
text, the context of some enclosed in parentheses, and some terms underlined to specify the correction provided.

I hereby certify that I have critiqued the opinion paper with the working title: Filipinos and Lessons Never Learned
written by Grachel Pillejera and Kaye Turija, second year Political Science students of the University of San Carlos, as
partial fulfilment of the elective course Skills in Argumentation.

Tracy Kobe T. Suganob


BS in Airline Management – II, Indiana Aerospace University
Filipinos and Lessons Never Learned

Up to what degree have the Filipinos learned about coping with ever recurring disasters?

Trending in the news these days are reports of horrible earthquakes (use common term first) in Mindanao reaching
Luzon and the Visayas, along with the piteous status of the victims during the ground-shaking’s aftermath. Residents are
begging for food along the roads. Task forces with different missions have been formed by the government to address
the sudden influx of the people’s needs. Relief foundations are coming over to the severely affected provinces in the
“Land of Promise” to extend assistance. Several government officials and city government offices, together with other
public and private institutions, are sending millions of monetary aid – all (‘these’ omitted) to shed light in the eyes of the
mournful victims of the strong magnitude earthquakes that destroyed the lives and properties of the Mindanaoans.

Horrific disasters. Mainstream. (consider revising staccato) Disasters like the series of earthquakes in Mindanao and a
few in CALABARZON and Guiuan, Samar are not new. (too specific in given context, consider omitting ‘Guiuan’) Being a
country in the Pacific Ring of Fire, (consider briefly defining for the reader what the Pacific Ring of Fire is) the
Philippines is expected to be prone to various calamities like strong typhoons and earthquakes. (consider revising, as
the Pacific Ring of Fire only influences volcanic and seismic activity, not typhoons) Consequently, Filipinos are
supposed to be ever ready. Amidst frequent tests of vulnerabilities, same things happen with almost total destruction,
even in places that are commonly visited by typhoons and areas with histories of strong earthquakes. This has become a
cycle, but will it ever come to a halt? Were there even any successful attempts?

About a year ago, there was a proposal from the House of Representatives for the creation of the Department of
Disaster Reliance (DDR). This idea has gone through several rejections. It is unquestionable that the country needs to
create more measures towards disaster resilience and preparedness. The government’s actions and decisions are
detrimental. (Which ones? How are they detrimental?) With the pressing occurrences of major earthquakes affecting
the Southern Philippines, the House now urges the swift passage of House Bill No. 4 (‘the disaster agency bill’ omitted)
(‘thus’ omitted), an act creating the Emergency Response Department (ERD). This proposed measure would dedicate a
certain department that would respond to emergencies and calamities not just for short, but for long term effectivity.

Aside from putting the burden on the government alone, the existing traits and attitudes of the Filipino people became a
big factor. Filipinos, known for their natural resilience manifested after a cataclysmic event, are like birds able to rise
with smiles on their faces. Conversely, on another perspective, (redundant, consider revising) it is not just in this phase
that the dilemma is examined. Common negative traits like mañana habit (procrastinating), ningas cogon (leaving one’s
work either half-baked or unfinished), and bahala na (fatalistic attitude), are persistent up to this day. The
manifestations of these attributes, though small, are detrimental in managing disastrous situations. There are instances
when warnings are given ahead of time and people living in low-lying areas are asked to evacuate, yet they resist,
thinking that conditions will not worsen immediately. (Warnings for what? Consider defining for the reader what
instances have warnings given ahead of time) The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council or
NDRRMC used to send warnings through text messages whenever calamities are expected. (define acronyms first
before using the acronym itself in subsequent text) (‘used to’? Provide evidence that the NDRMMC no longer does
this) Filipinos tend to rely solely on external rather than self-help, and by believing that faith alone saves.

Without disregarding the efforts made by the government and other institutions, it is undeniable that the solutions
given are short-term, inconsistent, and passive. Thankfully, organizations and bodies from different sectors are ready to
lend a hand whenever the Philippines is slapped (weak term, consider revising) with problems of vulnerability and
resilience.

Up to what degree, then, has the Filipino (plural omitted) learned about coping with ever recurring disasters?

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