MANY local officials, especially those whose provinces or cities were ravaged by calamities have a lot to learn from Davao Oriental lady governor Corazon Malanyaon.
Typhoon Yolanda may have claimed over 10,000 lives but the devastation caused by Typhoon Pablo on crops, properties and buildings, livelihood and hundreds of those who perished during the killer howler could be of greater magnitude.
What claimed the lives of so many in Leyte was tsunami. What flattened buildings, forest covers, coconut trees and anything standing in Davao Oriental was the raging typhoon never experienced in the country and in many parts of the world.
My former kasambahay from Cateel, who stayed with us for years, recounted how their house was lifted by what she described was dark whirling wind. They found the wreckage of their house in another barangay.
Her brother who worked as a gasoline station attendant watched, while lying prone, the Globe cell site pylon being twisted like a thin piece of wire by the howler and then throwing it towards his direction. He cannot even stand to scamper for safety, he recalled, because any objects standing loose were thrown like pieces of paper. He lived to tell the story but four of his relatives perished.
At the break of dawn following the December 4 tragic event in 2012 I called Gov. Corazon Malanyaon. I personally knew she is from Cateel, a coastal town badly hit by Typhoon Pablo. Being governor however, she holds office in the Capital City of Mati. But I found out she had left Mati and was on her way to the east coast. Communications facilities were down and it was late when finally I was able to get a freak connection with her. She was somewhere in south of Bislig fording her way through felled mahoganies and coconut trees and eroded mountain sides. The east coast was only accessible via Surigao del Sur.
She had not had a wink thinking about the massive devastation she was told via military radio and worried about what happened to her kin in Cateel.
Fast Forward
A woman with dogged determination for survival and success, the lady governor did not waste time and allow the massive destruction to paralyze her to surrender. Because there was pandemonium and help from the locals could not possibly address even a 10th of what was needed, she quickly organized retrieval operations teams. The military was of big help. Davao City government was the first to send aid.
As the specter of deaths and destruction started to come in, Cora knew what to do next. She flew to Manila and sought the help of private establishments.
The first to commit was Manny Pangilinan of PLDT who generously extended assistance. It was good for no less than 300 homes. She got the Department of Social Welfare and Development to rev their machineries. DSWD Regional Director PrecyRazon was on top of the situation. In less than a week, the governor had in her table the number of casualties, the estimates of the damage, the damage on infrastructures – roads bridges and the irrigation system in Cateel, the number of fishermen and the massive destruction wrought by Typhoon Pablo on the vast coconut plantations that Davao Oriental was famous.
The felled coconuts will never be restored to being the east coast primary source of income. It will take years and a lot of money and the herculean task of clearing the land so that it will be arable again. Here lies the challenge for a leader, a woman at that. She had no time to rest, to gripe and wait for aid. Amidst the ruins and desolation, Malanyaon who is a lawyer, accountant and an entrepreneur rolled in to one, look for opportunities.
She identified what cash crops are fast gestating. She linked up farmers with the world’s biggest confectionary firm –Mers Chocolate- that provided high-yielding variety of cacao seedlings.
She managed to get funding to rehab and upgrade the capacity of Cateel irrigation system.
Today, Davao Oriental is the country’s prime exporter of pepper. Soon it will become the cacao capital of the Philippines. In less than two years the badly battered remote town of Cateel is now a prime rice-producing town in the region.
In addition to all these epic undertakings, Malanyaon and here dynamic staff packaged the mountain ranges of Hamiguitan and successfully entered it among the Heritage sites of the world.
It is incredible indeed that Davao Oriental stands out unique compared to other places where natural calamities struck. More than 17,000 housing units had been constructed and awarded to those who lost their homes.
Over 700 fishing boats were given to the fisher folk who lost their bancas during the raging storm. One of the prime tourist destinations in the province is Aliwagwag falls.
The thousands of hectares of forest preserve that surround this wonderful spectacle were leveled to the ground exposing the rocks and boulders of the rivulets and streams that fed water to the falls.
Malanyaon and her army of environmentalists nurtured the saplings and whatever was left by the raging storm. The trees are now tall, the flora and the fauna slowly recover, the rippling waters in Aliwagwag falls are crystal clear again.
Governor Malanyaon’s last and final term as governor of Davao Oriental is coming to an end. She had, as she promised, achieved a legacy for the province of her birth.
For a time, at the height of the calamity, she was maligned by some quarters in the media and her political adversaries, even blaming her for illegal logging, mining etcetera, etcetera. Her performance and her achievement eloquently argues against her detractors many of them thought Davao Oriental will never recover from the ruins.
Well, she proved them wrong. What she did to her province should serve as an inspiration and motivation to political leaders in Leyte and Samar. There is life and bonanza after the storm. Some people asked me, “Will Cora retire after her term?” I said, “I don’t think so. Her constituents will put her back in congress.”
I was actually guessing. But why not? This lady governor is indefatigable.