the pain of being gilbert teodoro – teodoro’s performance during ondoy/pepeng did not help teodoro at all

the country went through probably the worst natural disaster the country has ever experienced. we know of the destruction it caused many parts of metro manila and north luzon, we waded through them but it had also cause so much psychological pain on the country’s psyche.

when the storms were happening, i was waiting for the government to step up and specifically i waited for an individual to come up to the plate and become the ondoy/pepeng hero. it did not come. the government gave too little, too late.

i saw gilbert teodoro come up to the plate. teodoro is the chair of NDCC (Natural Disaster

teodoro did not show competence during ondoy/pepeng

Coordinating Committee), the government agency in charge of preparing the country on how to deal with natural disasters in the country. i thought wow, this is a great stage for teodoro to show us why he should be elected president in 2010.

from where we sit, we think teodoro screwed up big time. it was obvious that the country was not at all prepared for natural disasters, exactly the mandate he was given to do as NDCC chair.

(read NDCC mandate here:  http://ndcc.gov.ph/home/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12&Itemid=26)

teodoro failed in fulfilling the mandate he was given as NDCC chair. there were glaring incompetency  in teodoro’s performance as NDCC chair – the country did not have enough rubber boats, the military and the police was not called to help the people specially during ondoy, they did not have transportation that can take the rescuers across flooded streets and the relief efforts were little and late. the private sector, like schools and media were even much more effective in sending relief goods and help to people than the government and NDCC.

we wondered how the people will view teodoro’s performance during the ondoy/pepeng floods. he had a national stage where he can perform. we thought if he did well, he can win by a landslide. it was a stage that any presidentiable dream of having. teodoro being NDCC chair and standard bearer of the administration was way ahead of all other presidentiables in having the opportunity to shine. they controlled all of it.

we were waiting for poll results to use a gauge on how the voters viewed tedoro’s performance as NDCC chair during the floods.

the september SWS poll  could not be used as a basis. the fieldwork was conducted on september 18-21 which was a couple of weeks before ondoy.

(read post: september 2009 SWS presidentiable poll :noynoy aquino’s spectacular rise to front runner is magical)

the more recent pulse asia october 2009 poll however can be used as a gauge, the fieldwork was conducted october 22-30, almost a month after the ondoy/pepeng floods.

(resd post: Pulse Asia October 2009 Presidentiable survey – noynoy aquino is dominant front runner)

in this poll, teodoro got only a 2%, that indicates the people DID NOT see teodoro’s performance as anything stellar, not even remarkable. we cannot conclude people see teodoro’s performance during the floods as a failure, as there are no indicators on this negative, but the low rating indicates at minimum it did not help teodoro.

too bad that tedoro missed out on making something out of an amazing opportunity to perform on a national stage.

gilbert teodoro’s tv ad – promises made, promises broken

we like to contribute our bit to this blog on political tv ads. we are no ad expert, but we will react to the ad as viewer of ads on tv. this ad got us interested as there is a lot of talk on noynoy aquino’s new tv ad “hindi ka nag-iisa”,  so we thought getting into gilbert teodoro’s tv ad is an  appropriate time to do so now.

teodoro’s tv ad was written about in this blog by wawam last may 11 (read it here, click: gilbert who? introduces himself in tv ad). it is interesting that in his post then, he said this:

we are of course t-h-a-n-k-f-u-l that teodoro told us what we need to do for emergencies. while the ad told us these things, we will probably remember the correct spelling of his name. the only problem of course is that emergencies do not happen that often. but since we see the ad very often on tv, he is hoping we will remember his name very often.

wawam was correct in saying emergencies do not happen often. he said that in may, four months after at the end september, ondoy and pepeng happened and we like to look at this ad from that perspective.

gilbert teodoro is the chair of NDCC, the National Disaster Coordinating Committee. the NDCC is the main government agency tasked to prepare the country in case of emergencies just like the ondoy/pepeng floods.

NDCC mandate, NDCC website is source:  
It is through the NDCC member-agencies that disaster preparedness, prevention, mitigation and response carry out its corresponding tasks and responsibilities under the NDCC system.

http://ndcc.gov.ph/home/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12&Itemid=26

the tv ad opens with the basic premise of the ad – 

farmer: “Sir, may parating na bagyo. Pano na ang pananim namin?”
teodoro: “Huwag kayong mag-alala. Tutulungan ko kayo.”
toedoro to CAM: “Bahagi ng buhay ay ang mga kalamidad. Hindi natin ito mapipigilan kaya dapt maghanda.”

 after that sequence, the tv ad spells out his last name with each letter representing what the people will do to prepare for emergencies.

we think this ad is full of irony and yes to a certain degree prophetic. four months after he aired these ads, the premise of the ad, a “bagyo”, in fact two of them happened.

but that is where this ad stops in succeeding to be real  – while the premise of the ads were perfect for what happened during ondoy/pepeng, the government action and certainly the NDCC led by teodoro did not at all deliver in what was spelled in  T-E-O-D-O-R-O.

local governments were unprepared, did not know what to do and the national government was not there and didn’t seem to know what it was supposed to do, not even when they knew what the letters  T-E-O-D-O-R-O stood for. there is a unanimous conclusion by everyone the government was too late and gave too little during the typhoon disasters.

in other words teodoro in real life broke the promises he made in this tv ad. to a certain extent, the tv ad did fulfill the mandate set for NDCC as stated in their website but in practice, teodoro failed. makes us think that perhaps the ad was truly the creation of a very creative writer who plucked the words out of his imagination but forgot to tell teodoro he is supposed to do everything in those letters so that when an actual flood comes, we will all be saved.

we have heard of politicians breaking the promises they make during the campaign period, but this one is just all too real for all of us. wawam was correct – we learned to spell    T-E-O-D-O-R-O and now after ondoy/pepeng, we learned new meanings for those letters : L-E-A-D-E-R-S-H-I-P  F-A-I-L-U-R-E.

the pain of being gilbert teodoro, standard bearer of the ruling/admin party is standard zero

 we know the kinds of problems gilbert teodoro, standard bearer of the ruling/admin party is facing in his quest for the presidency, but this news article surprised us  and to be honest it was completely unexpected.

we did not imagine that it was this bad for teodoro. we feel the pain that gilbert teodoro feels. we fear for his presidential campaign.

teodoro went to marilao, bulacan to visit but the residents wondered who he was, they even said they were happy to see noynoy aquino pay them a visit! the residents mistook teodoro to be noynoy aquino.

here is where the pain we feel for teodoro comes from:

• we know that he suffers badly in the polls, the latest showing him gaining a minuscule 0.2% in the latest quarterly SWS survey. that puts him at the very bottom among  the major candidates and in the company of  the laggards perlas, madrigal and de los reyes.
• his party’s announcement as the standard bearer of the ruling/admin party was greeted not with glee, not with excitement but  ho-hum not only among the public but also among his party-mates. his party-mates did not exactly jump with joy when he was chosen. rather than the good things, the negatives of doubt and insecurity came up instead.
• ondoy came and as NDCC head he was at the front and center of the country. the NDCC is the government agency tasked to respond to the likes of ondoy it stands for National Disaster Coordinating Committee  and Teodoro being the chair means he will get a lot of media. he did.

but  that did not help him.

given the above, you would expect that teodoro’s 0.2% will get a surge. we don’t know yet if it did in numerical terms but given what happened in bulacan, we might be hoping against hope.

there is a lot of discontent on the kind of reaction the national government, the NDCC and by extension arroyo on the aftermath of the ondoy disaster. no help came and if they did, it was too little, too late. on the other hand, the private sector, groups, companies and individuals came out in force many times over and in many cases ahead of the government, in many places the only people who came to help the victims.

what shoves teodoro deeper into name recognition hell, and this adds salt to an open wound is that he was doing something good in bulacan -he visited. not being recognized for it says (a) he really suffers from a very low recognition, reflective of the 0.2% in the polls and (b) people seem to automatically equate good deeds with aquino and not with any other presidentiable. it’s bad enough you are not know by the voters, it’s really dismal when the good you do is attributed to your main rival.

ouch! double ouch!

That’s Gibo! ‘Ondoy’ a bane and a boon 
 By Jocelyn Uy, Leila Salaverria
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 05:40:00 10/06/2009 

MARILAO, BULACAN —Defense Secretary Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro Jr. has the looks and credentials to run for president. Unfortunately, some flood-stricken residents here mistook him for the other presidential aspirant, Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, who happens to be his cousin.

While the residents of Barangay Lambakin were excited to see a government official finally checking up on them after more than a week since Tropical Storm “Ondoy” (international codename: Ketsana) submerged their homes in mud and floodwaters, they also wondered and whispered among themselves if it was Noynoy visiting them.

Overhearing the murmured exchange, someone from Teodoro’s party said in Filipino: “That’s Gibo,” referring to the defense chief’s nickname.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20091006-228604/Thats-Gibo-Ondoy-a-bane-and-a-boon