Villar Water Bottles & Noodles

A bunch of photos have been going around for the past few days on social networks (Plurk, Facebook, Friendster, and Twitter). It instantly caught my attention and I decided to post the pictures here for everyone’s viewing. During the height of Ondoy relief operations Senator Villar became controversial when his relief goods had a tag saying that it came from him. This sparked a lot of debates online and offline. It wasn’t just Villar though, even former President Estrada had relief good tickets with his face on it. That was just the beginning though… fast forward a few weeks, the old orange sticker with “V” written using a pen has transformed into a full line of Villar relief goods merchandise.

Ok lang ba talaga?
We go back to my earlier question if it’s okay to actually brand relief operations. Some people are saying that the effort and resources could have gone somewhere else that would have made a bigger difference in the operations. I’ve also read some bloggers and people on Facebook saying that the politicians are taking advantage of the situation to campaign and promote themselves for the upcoming 2010 elections.

On the other hand we have various groups saying that there’s nothing really wrong with it. Instead of zeroing in on those branding their operations while helping, they’re saying we should talk about the candidates who aren’t doing anything at all (which kinda makes sense if you think about it).

This puts politicians in a catch 22 situation wherein they can’t really please everyone. It’s a damned if you do, damned if you don’t scenario. I’m sure there’s a middle ground somewhere but they still won’t be able to get everyone on board. If you say you’re helping out, you’re politicking, if you don’t, people will say you’re not helping. Here’s another question that’s worth thinking about… if Ondoy happened like 2 years ago when the elections was far away, or maybe after the 2010 elections, would the people we’re seeing helping out now still pour out the same amount of resources in relief operations?

Just a thought I’d like to share – the true victory and triumph of the Ondoy tragedy wasn’t the help given by the politicians, it was the help given by the normal Filipinos who decided to take time out and money from their own pockets. These people had nothing to gain whatsoever and yet they still volunteered.

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