Government officials, both local and national, should not take advantage of the relief operations for cyclone victims to promote themselves, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. said on Wednesday. Teodoro, a presidential hopeful, also heads the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC), which is in charge of addressing the aftermath of tropical storm Ondoy and typhoon Pepeng. He said campaigning in the 2010 elections while the country is under a state of calamity is “insensitive" to the needs of the people. “Nasa taong bayan na, sila na ang bahalang humusga (It’s up to the people, it’s for them to discern)," Teodoro told GMANews.TV on Wednesday, referring to candidates who prematurely campaign during relief operations. Teodoro admitted that while some candidates’ political ambitions had been put on hold because of recent events, others have found it an opportunity to turn their relief operations as an extension of their campaigning.
In Ondoy’s aftermath, some prospective candidates in next year’s elections have begun giving out relief goods with their names on it. Some personally hand out tdonations, along with their entourage of campaigners at evacuation centers. In Barangay Bagong Silangan in Quezon City, at least two candidates in the local and national level were reported to have visited evacuation sites to hand out relief bags with their names on them. While the NDCC does not discourage candidates from helping out, Teodoro said the Commission on Elections should monitor their movements. Teodoro was chosen by the Lakas-Kampi-CMD party of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as standard bearer for the 2010 elections. He said he, too, has put on hold his preparations for the campaign and elections next year until someone else replaces him in the NDCC post “as soon as possible." “I don’t want the momentum to be destroyed," he said. While Teodoro has been quiet about his presidential campaign following the Ondoy relief operations, he said such disasters would truly test candidates on who could take on the nation’s top post in 2010. “I think it’s a good test. It really tests your worth and in what you prioritize and what hard decisions to make," he said. About 3.9 million people were affected when Ondoy
unleashed a month’s volume of rain in six hours last Sept. 26. According to the NDCC, 335,000 people are currently in various evacuation centers in Metro Manila and the outlying provinces of Rizal and Laguna, which were the hardest hit by Ondoy. The United Nations on Wednesday, formally launched at the Sofitel Philippine Plaza hotel in Manila the tropical storm “Ketsana" flash appeal. A flash appeal provides the framework for a common inter-agency understanding of needs and priorities based on the best information currently available and will be revised after a month, when it will present a more complete picture of current humanitarian needs and pace of recovery. [See: UN on Ondoy relief: The world should pitch in] (http://www..gmanews.tv/story/173975/un-on-ondoy-relief-the-world-should-pitch-in)
- GMANews.TV 
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