MANILA, Philippines – BE PREPARED as prepared as possibly!
Ito ang naging tugon ni Pangulong Ferdinand Marcos Jr., sa isang panayam ng Manila Bulletin’s “The Sit Down” na hinost ni Philip Cu Unjieng, para sa kanyang bagong BBM Podcast matapos tanungin sa kung ano ang grado na kanyang maibibigay sa gobyerno pagdating sa disaster prepardeness at katatagan lalo pa’t kapansin-pansin na ang Pilipinas ay isang disaster prone ngayong taon.
“In government, the best that we can do is really to be prepared, as prepared as we can possibly be, and move very, very quickly,” ayon sa Pangulo.
“Just always – me.. It’s very simple for me, I’m motivated by the fact, think of the children that are in distress now. What do they need? What do we have to do? You cannot wait. Don’t do it later. Do it now. Do it now. Do it now,” aniya pa rin.
Hindi naman kaila sa Pangulo ang hamon na bitbit ng lahat ng kalamidad lalo na sa buong mundo kung saan matapos ma-headlines o mabalita kung ano ang mga nangyari ay nananatili pa rin na may mga taong nagdurusa at pilit na bumabangon.
“Yeah, well that’s why – that’s what I want to avoid. And that’s why I made it very clear when I went to both Masbate and to Cebu, I said this is not a one-time thing,” ang sinabi ng Chief Executive sabay sabing “We’re here, we’re gonna stay here until everyone is more or less in a stable condition. The difference between for example, a storm, the typhoon, like what happened in Masbate, and an earthquake that happened in Cebu,”
“Pag bagyo, we can always say preemptive evacuation, dalhin ninyo sa evacuation center. However, after an earthquake, the main damage is infrastructure, structure. Pagdating ng lindol, sasabihin, dalhin natin sa evacuation center. Hindi tayo nakakasiguro sa evacuation center. We have to get the engineers to come in, to inspect. And as a natural reaction, the people do not want to be in concrete buildings. Baka mag-aftershocks, so natatakot sila. So, they prefer to stay out. We’ve already – I got the reports that in Cebu, the tent cities are starting to go up with the help of Dick Gordon and the Red Cross. They’ve been very, very, very helpful,” litaniya ni Pangulong Marcos.
May nakarating na aniyang report sa kanya na sa Cebu, may 10 lungsod na aniya ang nagsisimulang bumangon sa sa tulong ni Philippine Red Cross (PRC) Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Richard J. Gordon at ng Red Cross.
“They’ve been very, very, very helpful,” ang tinuran ng Pangulo. (KRIS JOSE)
