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NDCC
Read this overview of the government’s ham-handed handling of Ondoy’s depredations, wilya? It raises a lot of good points.
However, I think it might’ve missed the point a little. It reports:
As per Presidential Decree No. 1566, the NDCC is primarily tasked to give advice to the President on disaster preparedness, disaster operations, and disaster rehabilitation efforts.
The composition of the Council, at best, is ad hoc. All of them, except for the PNRC Secretary General and, in some cases, the AFP Chief of Staff, are co-terminus with the President. Such an ad hoc composition gives the NDCC a myopic mandate in terms of risk management and disaster response capability.
In this regard, the NDCC should be steered and staffed by risk management experts, supply chain managers, and disaster response professionals. They should be able to give the President a briefing and options paper within the first 12 hours or less after a disaster or calamity hits the country. They should have a continuing program to improve government’s disaster response capability by crunching up-to-date and reliable data and information from PAGASA and PHILVOCS.
In short, let the politician (i.e. the President) take care of the political response to the crisis. But make sure he has all the options with him prepared by the professionals.
Political response? That kinda had me scratching my head. It seemed like, in its hurry to criticize the President, this article might’ve missed a crucial detail.
What is more salient to the current sorry state of affairs is that the NDCC is mandated to “(act) as the top coordinator of all disaster management and the highest allocator of resources in the country to support the efforts of the lower DCC level.”
Top coordinator; top allocator. As in the tippy-top. The NDCC has the final say in coordinating responses and allocating resources, i.e., where do these rubber boats go? who do we rescue first? do we have choppers available? That sort of front-line crap. The NDCC doesn’t just prepare options for the Commander-in-Chief to pick and choose from; the NDCC weighs the options and prods to action. That’s what top coordinator and top allocator means.
If it lies anywhere, then I think the NDCC’s fault lies squarely in its failure to coordinate and allocate effectives and efficiently. Any post-event analyses of Ondoy should therefor pay close attention to exactly how the NDCC performed this mandate.
Inevitably, criticism of the President will arise. In fact, very early on, outrage had already erupted over reports that she had tapped into the emergency fund to pay for her junkets. The refrain went “how many rubber boats could have been paid for by the 800 million pesos she used for her trips?” A fair question, but one that leads to only one conclusion: if we had a better president, then we would have had a better response. Now that is bullshit.
Good president or bad makes no difference. True, if Gloria hadn’t dipped her sticky paws into the emergency honey pot, there would be more money available – but then would we have bought rubber boats with that money? Most likely not. So, come crunch time, there would still be a shortage of rubber boats.
So, while it is probably the most satisfying thing in the world to just heap the blame on the President and her plueys, it is actually counter-productive because many of us are likely to stop there. Just verbally abuse her, shake our heads, and just go on with the business of setting our life back to right. But the problem isn’t just with the President. Not by a long shot.
As much as this stings, I suspect that the fault should ultimately be laid at the feet of the head of the NDCC – Gilbert Teodoro. A good manager – such as he has been portraying himself – should be able to quickly take stock of the situation, assess the needs, assess the availability of resources, and make intelligent and informed decisions for their disposition. The NDCC chief more than any other since, first, the law empowers him sufficiently, and second, who’s gonna complain if he starts to act decisively in the face of tragedy?
Now there are those who would’ve preferred to see the President at the front line doing what the NDCC chief should’ve been doing. That’s prolly understandable, considering our tendency to look at our leaders as parents rather than as, well, leaders (the expectations for each are different but the discussion of those differences would prolly merit a separate post). And because of that, it galls us no end when the President is not as hands-on as we expect. We forget that we have agencies like the NDCC precisely because the President cannot be hands-on with everyone all the time.
The burden on the NDCC chief is therefore all the greater. He is the President’s surrogate, and as such was given broad and awesome powers to act out that role effectively or, at least, convincingly. Gilbert Teodoro, I’m sorry to say, seems to have fallen short.
He has fallen short because of the lateness of the coordinated response; he has fallen short because whatever response was mobilized, it had huge gaps that allowed entire subdivisions of people to languish unaided; he has fallen short because at a moment when he should be on top of things, he appeared befuddled and tentative. Not qualities that I would look for in a leader. I’m no Republican, but Rudy Giuliani rocks my world that way.
Of course, Gilbert Teodoro is just the tip of the infrastructure of FAIL. I sure hope that when the flood waters subside, the awesome failure of the NDCC can be dissected coldly and objectively, to identify where things went wrong and how.
Written by rom
Rom is a twenty-one year old experiment. She began life with the notion that she was a Filipino-Chinese Ilongga. Now, she just thinks of herself as Ilongga, having realized that she has failed at being Chinese. At least that's what her aku told her upon learning that she had fallen in love with a Filipino.
Filed under: Musings, News, Politics · Tags: disaster response, flood, Gilber Teodoro, NDCC, ondoy
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EPIC FAIL: Teodoro’s job at NDCC. You should probably cross him out.
moderated again?
This is all a blur to me. In times of crisis, it’s not the whys and hows but what government is actually doing. We can’t for the love of god think like government thinks–there is a limit to empathy here, even an impossibility. And the person who insists that citizens should understand how government thinks and feels is a lazy, corrupt manipulative SOB.
Some of the problems are straightforward. No food, no rescue… where are the helicopters? Where are the armored personnel carriers… you know, those APCs can go through deep mud; they are built that way.
Work, results, failure is unacceptable.
What is the Philippine Government for anyway, what is its purpose? To discipline the masses and check the advance of the middle class? That’s how I feel my government is: the ever oppressive social superego. If you know your Freud, Rom, the superego is what prevents the id from doing what it needs to do. In pyschoanalytical terms, it is contingent in the overall personality. Socially speaking, the id it reigns in are the masses.
————
And Gibo is just half a man… without his name. Of course, we’re forgetting, a president should be everything, not just one thing. Not a specialist, but a good overall guy. Maybe Villar, then, because Noynoy seems even weaker than Gibo. I change my mind now.
Thanks for quoting my post.
To address your point –
In the greater scheme of things, the President will have to act and take decisive leadership. The NDCC Chair, the SND, is the President’s alter-ego, and is directly responsible to the President. If he fouls up, it’s the President’s ass on the line. Thus, it will be better for the President to closely manage matters to prevent foul ups.
But let me clarify that. Managing is different from operations. What I was suggesting in my post is that the new NDCC should be composed of professionals and those who know how to respond and manage risks and disasters because they were trained for it. They have to write an options paper for the President. The President then has to choose from the basket of options crunched by these professionals — this is the ‘political’ response.
We were taught in Public Administration 11 that there is a thin line between politics and administration. Let the elected (political) leaders choose the best response, but make sure that the options laid down to them are given by professional competent technocrats (administrators).
The NDCC Chair, the SND, is the President’s alter-ego, and is directly responsible to the President. If he fouls up, it’s the President’s ass on the line. Thus, it will be better for the President to closely manage matters to prevent foul ups.
The doctrine of qualified political agency precisely means that the President is considered to have delegated whatever power is necessary for the NDCC Chair (for instance) to perform his function completely and effectively.
While the idea of the President “closely managing matters” might give people psychological comfort, that’s all it is: a placebo. The truth is, you cannot expect the President to be an expert in every single thing that she has an alter-ego for; this is the fact which makes alter-egos necessary in the first place.
Decisive leadership, yes – but limit that to top-level decisions: the kind which is rarely needed in the acute stages of disaster response. At most, that’ll entail the declaration of a state of calamity, perhaps, to legally open up more resources to the disposal of the NDCC; or the reverse – the determination to quarantine a certain location (as in the event of a disease out-break where the danger of the disease spreading out of control is high) thereby leaving the victims essentially to their fate. These are the kinds of top-level decisions that call for political will; these are the political responses that the NDCC is not authorized to make.
We were taught in Public Administration 11 that there is a thin line between politics and administration. Let the elected (political) leaders choose the best response, but make sure that the options laid down to them are given by professional competent technocrats (administrators).
This is prolly correct. But in the context of acute disaster management, the President should place great reliance on the decisions made by the NDCC. It’s like when you’re trying to learn to tango. Just because you’re president, doesn’t mean you can overrule your dance instructor, eh?
Couldn’t have said it better
Rudy may have shone at the time of crisis. I’ll give him that. Too bad it didn’t help his presidential bid. He definitely cleaned up the City in the mid-90s, when I used to go there a lot, but he was “il duce” to the locals… if you know what they knew, I dunno if he would still rock your world.
At a certain level, priorities change.
Nakakainis na malaman na since january 2005, Gloria had the Four Point Plan of Action for Preparedness but unfortunately (as always), after almost 4 years, nothing has been done. even the purchase of Doppler Radar (for PAG-ASA) is still pending somewhere.
Please see News Clip.
Nicky Perlas was correct. This government has been sleeping quite too long. Typhoon Frank didn’t shook them until Ondoy came.
Ang four point plan na ito ay sa papel lamang.
• Upgrading of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geo-physical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) and Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) Forecasting Capability – The capability upgrade focused on improving forecasting capability of natural hazards such as typhoons, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis through the acquisition of equipment and personnel development. The capability upgrade is geared towards strengthening linkages with foreign forecasting institutions to make forecasting, not only a domestic, but a regional concern. Geo-hazard mapping in identified areas is designed to serve as scientific reference for land-use planning, formulation of disaster management plans, and establishment of an effective early warning system to include real-time information dissemination.
• Public Information Campaign on Disaster Preparedness – Development and implementation of a strategic communications plan to increase awareness of the public on natural hazards and communicate effectively preparedness measures that can be undertaken by the community in case these hazards translate into emergencies.
• Capacity Building for Local Government Units in Identified Vulnerable Areas – Provide technical assistance to local government units of identified vulnerable communities in formulating and developing programs particularly in the area of mitigation and preparedness.
• Mechanisms for Government and Private Sector Partnership in Relief and Rehabilitation – To come up with a mechanism that will promote government and private sector-community participation synergy, and improve coordination to achieve a seamless interface of local and national interventions through effective logistics management, information management and redundant communications systems.
Fall in line at the back of a long cue. This is nothing new, more the typical nature of how our government operates. First is reactionary to the situation then they write a well scripted plan of actions (sometimes pass a law) and if and when funding arrives, monies withers down through various SOPs before it even gets to its implementation stage, if it even gets there. Not suprised at all at the poor response of our government. Wait and see, they will come up again with a long list of planned courses of action only to come up ahort again in the next disaster. Corruption kills.