Bayanihan among high government officials?

If it is a question, then the answer is none. But among us the masses? Sure. It has been self-evident. People everywhere have been giving a helping hand, whether resources or time. But those who should be primary accountable?

Those people are more pre-occupied with their self-interest to care. The sad part is, they've been giving the masses a show that they do care and has been giving a helping hand. To look at them as heroic at this point in time is to see this event with childish, immature eyes.

But we are all adults. And we have been looking at them long enough to know that self-interests comes first before giving the necessary and immediate assistance to those in need, the Filipinos who voted for them, and those they will ask to vote for them next year.

Perhaps the election is the culprit. Bad timing, these tragedies are. They cannot just release the funds necessary to rebuild because it is being saved to buy votes in April. Why not release now and have it leveraged for the next election? Because election laws prevent it. That's probably why one presidentiable goes around with shows and "discreetly" campaigns while giving donations of food and housing raffles to the victims. Bad taste really.

And others giving the donations with yellow shirts? Are we really that stupid to think that the color they carry is really non-partisan? Come to think of it, yellow gets dirty easily, so why wear it while going to the flood and mud areas?

And this government. Bless them for asking international help for the victims. When we know for a fact that those donations will not be accounted for. The tragedies just gave them another license to build up their campaign funds, with no real help reaching the real victims.

By the speed help is coming to the real victims, you would think we're still living in the 50's. But the problem is not logistics. It's the release of the funds and how portions of it are slowly being stripped through the pockets of government officials in the approval process.

Meanwhile, people who are trying to make ends meet with the resources left to them and still make a life out of it awaits. Probably with April 2010 approaches they can get their assistance. So the government will get something back through the votes. Something not worth of them in the first place.