Interior Secretary Mar Roxas. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines – Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II ought to be praised, not criticized for “risking life and limb” to reach areas hit by the Typhoon “Ruby” (Hagupit), the secretary general of the ruling Liberal Party said Tuesday.
Western Samar Rep. Mel Senen Sarmiento defended the presumptive LP standard-bearer from criticism after a photo of Roxas falling with his motorcycle circulated online.
“Instead of drawing flak over his motorcycle accident, [he] should even be commended for going out his way even to the point of endangering himself, just to make a personal assessment of how the government could best help the areas devastated by Super Typhoon Ruby,” said Sarmiento, a member of the United Nations-International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) advisory group of parliamentarians.
In a statement, the congressman praised Roxas’ contributions in leading preparations for Ruby and “the seamless coordination between government agencies,” which he said should serve as a template for future disaster preparedness and response operations.
“The government may have stumbled on a new innovation on how to best deploy first responders in highly inaccessible disaster-stricken areas and this is through the use of all-terrain and highly mobile motorcycle units,” he said.
“The use of motorcycles as a tool in disaster response is an innovation which the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) can adopt especially in deploying quick reaction units. During disasters, many areas are completely cut off from the rest of the world and could be accessible only through small vehicles like motorbikes,” he said.
Sarmiento added that with top government officials on the ground, the government was able to orchestrate a well-coordinated disaster preparation and response system without the usual difficulties in synchronizing the actions of various government agencies and local government units.
While Ruby, which reached super typhoon status before it made landfall, was relatively weaker than another super typhoon “Yolanda” (Haiyan), it was still a powerful and deadly typhoon, which could have caused a large number of casualties had it not for the effective and early evacuation of people in high risk areas.
“The government’s success in carrying out all the needed preparations to bring people out of harm’s way and its seamless coordination in terms of deploying rescue and relief units definitely led to a low casualty rate despite the huge damage to properties,” he said.
“Ruby is one of the biggest typhoons to hit the Philippines and I am really glad that we made it through without the need for too many body bags,” Sarmiento said.