Marcos irked by lack of specifics during Carina disaster briefing

During a televised situation briefing on the impact of Typhoon Carina, Marcos sounded like a broken record reminding government officials that their presentations should be less about general numbers and more about the 'actual situation'

How many times does the President have to say that he wants specifics, not general statistics?

That was a recurring theme of the government’s televised post-disaster situation briefing on Thursday, July 25, as President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. sounded like a broken record reminding government officials not to give him information he believed he didn’t need.

It happened numerous times. Take for example when state weather bureau PAGASA administrator Nathaniel Servando presented the “chronology of events on the evolution of Typhoon Carina.”

Marcos, who also presided over a situation briefing the previous day, said he didn’t need a repeat of such a presentation.

“Can we focus on what the situation is now?” he asked. “I remember I asked for a map or a list of areas that are still isolated, number one. And number two, we can see for ourselves that the typhoon is leaving. So, where are we now?”

When Metro Manila Development Authority chief Don Artes read off a slide comparing the rainfall intensity between tropical cyclones Ondoy and Carina, Marcos told him: “We can read this. We can do away with all of these. Just get to the actual situation.”

Office of Civil Defense Administrator Ariel Nepomuceno also offered aggregate reports on the impact of the southwest monsoon enhanced by Typhoon Carina, but said the situation in Cavite and Batangas have yet to be included in its report.

Marcos, believing that the presentation was Metro Manila-centric, let out a deep sigh that was captured by the microphone.

“Okay, look. What I need to know, what we need for us to be able to decide what to do next, we have to understand, it’s not very useful for me to hear that — 164 requests for rescue. This means nothing. Where?” Marcos quipped.

“What we need to ascertain now is — what is the situation as of this morning and where do we go? Where do we send our people?” he added. “We are here in NCR (National Capital Region), but it’s not NCR only. It’s Region 3 (Central Luzon), Calabarzon [Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon],” he added.

Later, he was handed a document which, he said, summarized the standard assistance needed per province, city, and municipality, but the President was still dissatisfied.

“We need specific figures. That’s why I’m trying to assess the damage. I need to know how much help do they need. Each province is different, each region is different. This has to be a measured response simply because we cannot do anything otherwise,” Marcos said.

Ocular inspection

After the briefing at the Presidential Security Command headquarters in Manila, Marcos made the rounds in the capital region, inspecting storm-hit areas in Valenzuela and Navotas.

The President, along with Cabinet officials, rode a truck to pass through extremely flooded areas.

A recent Pulse Asia survey showed disaster response is among the only two issues in which the administration has a majority approval score.

The poll in June found that 64% of Filipinos were satisfied with the government’s efforts to respond to the needs of areas affected by calamities. Some 6% of respondents said otherwise, while 24% were undecided.

The nonstop rain, which has resulted in work and class suspensions across three regions in the past two to three days, triggered heavy flooding that brought back memories of Ondoy, a tropical storm in 2009 whose subsequent floods killed hundreds of people.

That death toll definitely dwarfs the partial fatality count of 14 from Carina and other weather disturbances in various parts of the Philippines for the month of July.

But the storm still undercuts Marcos’ accomplishment report on flood prevention just earlier this week, when he delivered his third State of the Nation Address.

“We have completed 5,500 flood control projects, and many are still being done in the whole country,” Marcos said in Filipino on Monday, July 22.

Did the President realize those figures are nothing when they don’t reflect the reality on the ground? – Rappler.com