Writing-off poverty, rewriting Yolanda

The moments that I was truly disgusted with the 2014 State of the Nation Address of the President was when he (and his speechwriters) decided to rewrite what we know of the nation, as if we weren’t looking with eyes wide open at the poverty that surrounds us, as if we weren’t witness to how this government let politics get in the way of relief operations in Tacloban post-Haiyan. As if we didn’t see the people of Tacloban and the rest of Leyte living with the dead on their city streets, asking for food and water.

As if none of us brought relief operations there, only to find that none of what we could do was enough. As if we did not know that this government’s goal has not been to build better—for were that the goal, why waste millions on inhumane and unlivable bunk houses? Why not build better the first time around?