In the wake of the devastation left by Tropical Storms “Ondoy” and “Pepeng,” the trisectoral agency hastily set up by President Macapagal-Arroyo two weeks ago to implement an ambitious plan to rehabilitate the damaged areas stands on the brink of collapse—threatened by a leadership vacuum, not by another storm.

Two weeks after Ms Arroyo announced the designation of business leader Manuel V. Pangilinan as chair of the Special National Public Reconstruction Commission (SNPRC), he was told that his glorified title of “Rehabilitation Czar” was as empty as the coffers of the commission to undertake the gigantic task of rebuilding the storm havoc estimated to cost up to P30 billion.

Executive Order No. 838 of Oct. 22 gave the government the lead role in implementing the reconstruction program, in cooperation with the private sector.

Pangilinan represented the private sector in the trisectoral commission. Responsibilities in the curiously designed commission were shared by representatives of business, Catholic Church and the government, giving the semblance that the rehabilitation effort had the participation of the key sectors of Philippine society.

Under the setup, with Pangilinan as figurehead chair, the commission is co-chaired by Finance Secretary Margarito Teves and Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Vidal.

Before Pangilinan could warm his seat and contemplate on his responsibilities and functions as “czar,” Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro Jr., head of the National Disaster Coordinating Council, cut him down to size and defined his limits of authority.

Recommendatory

Teodoro said the work of the private sector would be, “strictly speaking, recommendatory in nature” since the government agencies involved in the reconstruction effort would rely on their private sector partners for “inputs”—meaning raising funds.

It is understood that Pangilinan has no authority to dispose of funds. It is unclear what the function of Cardinal Vidal is, except for the obvious, to lead the prayers when his co-chairs meet to decide on how to cut up the fund disbursements.

The commission is built on the notion of rule by committee—a structure shunned by dynamic businesses because it never works.

The commission was created after the government came under heavy criticism for its slow and inadequate response to cries for aid from storm victims.

It was announced to give the impression that the government was embarking on a reconstruction program on a scale that would not only provide immediate relief but also prepare the country against future disasters.

Ms Arroyo has directed the commission to undertake a study of the causes, costs and actions needed to rebuild the damage.

She directed the body to go on an international panhandling effort and to seek fresh aid to fund the reconstruction of roads, bridges and expressways and infrastructure.

“We want to raise more grants rather than more loans because we still don’t have a good debt-to-GDP ratio,” Ms Arroyo said.

Two weeks after its creation, the commission still has no idea of a master plan for rehabilitation and an updated estimate of the price tag of rehabilitation, as it was starting from scratch.

Under the executive order creating the commission, the private sector is also called upon to lend management expertise to the rehabilitation effort.

For lack of a concrete rehabilitation blueprint, Teves, the co-chair representing the government sector, started fiddling his fingers with hypothetical plans.

“Intuitively, we can divide the work into relief, early recovery and reconstruction,” Teves said. “Relief would last anywhere from today until three months from today. Recovery would be anywhere from three months to six months. Reconstruction and rehabilitation will take more than six months. So it will really transcend this administration.”

The government plans to ask the United Nations for more aid because damage from the storms has increased. The United Nations appealed for $74 million on Oct. 7 on behalf of the Philippines to help support hundreds of thousands of people affected by the storms.

The creation of the SNPRC represents one of the snap decisions of the government to establish institutions with long-term solutions to natural disaster. One of these was the decision to draw an urban development plan that would rid Metro Manila of tens of thousands of informal settlers and would modify its landscape.

Instant solutions

The idea was put at the last Legislative and Executive Development Advisory Council meeting in Malacañang. The plan aims to change the “topography and geography” of Metro Manila following the flooding brought by Ondoy and Pepeng.

There was nothing new in the plan. It was found that the there was such a blueprint gathering dust in the files, and was called the 1977 Metro Manila, Transport, Land Use and Development Project.

The study, funded by the World Bank, recommended: “Development should be restricted by the application of controls (for flooding) in three major areas—in the Marikina Valley, the western shores of Laguna de Bay, and the coastal area north of Manila.

Following the devastation by the floods, a new era of instant structural and institutional solutions to disasters has developed.

The projects involve enormous input of funds and are not expected to be completed by the end of Ms Arroyo’s term.

She will not be remembered as a rebuilder of a ruined nation. She will leave a legacy of ruined political institutions underpinning Philippine democracy.

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