The Philippine Online Chronicles

It’s been more than a week since the strongest and most devastating earthquake to ever strike Japan has occurred. Millions of people across the world, and in the Philippines included, watched glued to television sets as various news programs showed footage of a tsunami hitting Japan. Later on, we started seeing actual home video footage of how strong the earthquake was. You could see how a grocery store’s shelves were emptied of products, first due to a magnitude 9 earthquake, and later on because the Japanese people cleared out the shelves to stock up on supplies.

Indeed, there’s nothing in the airwaves right now that has taken center stage, more than the Japan earthquake.

While there’s a massive sentiment of empathy and sympathy from people all around the world, there’s also a collective sigh of relief from Filipinos – thank God our country was spared. After all, we have had our fair share of natural disasters, including economic and political disasters. While it may not sound a Christian way to think, we can’t help but feel that as bad as how things are going here, at least we don’t have a natural disaster to contend with. As it is, many Filipino families still haven’t recovered from the devastation of Ondoy, so imagine what an earthquake and tsunami of that magnitude would do to us.

Because of the physical proximity of Japan to the Philippines, it is impossible not to feel the ripple effects of the earthquake and tsunami in our country. Within hours of the earthquake in Japan, our country was placed on a high tsunami warning, affecting most of the islands and the eastern part of the country.

Although the country only recorded waves of about a foot high, mostly in the Babuyan group of islands, the Philippines will certainly feel the effects of Japan’s devastation. Right now, we can only predict and guess how things will unfold as the short term consequences will be soon revealed in the coming months. It will depend on how the Japanese government handles their recovery process.

If you’re a Filipino, you will be affected by the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, regardless of age, social and economic background, political affiliation or religious beliefs. It’s simply impossible not to. Did you not text your friends and loved ones as soon as you heard of the Japanese disaster? Did you not try to be with your family Friday night, especially with the threat of an impending tsunami in some places or the possibility or our own fault lines activating?

On an overall short term scale, there will certainly be an economic impact to the country. Also, Japan is one of the, if not the largest importer of our products. We also depend on Japanese exports, including electronic goods. Japan is one of the heaviest importers of the Philippines, raw materials and human labor included. On the short term, many jobs once available to Filipinos may suddenly be no longer available. Most of these will probably come from the entertainment industry, as people focus their efforts in rebuilding rather than rest and relaxation.

This will certainly affect our economy, which is largely dependent on remittances from OFWs. Already, over 9,000 Filipinos from Libya and the Middle East have been repatriated due to the political crisis in that side of the world. If our Japanese-bound OFWs are counted, the country may not see large remittances during the year. This directly affects millions of families here who depend on dollar remittances to have a comfortable lifestyle. If their workhorse is sent home, where will these families get the money to spend to maintain their standard of living?

If you’re middle class or higher up in the social bracket, you may think you are insulated from the effects. However, nothing could be farther from the truth. Whatever happens in the country economically affects how things are run here and the quality of services you receive from the government. If there’s not enough economic aid coming in or a slow down in donations from countries abroad, there won’t be any supplemental income to help stimulate our local economy.

The country receives a lot of economic aid from Japan, especially in the form of overseas development assistance or ODA. Also, other countries will redirect their efforts at assisting Japan, instead of us. The other first world nations simply won’t sit back and let Japan struggle, since our economies are all interrelated. Now that Japan has to focus inwards, any financial aid they extend outwards will certainly be cut back. It’s just like you stop inviting people over or stop giving away food if you don’t have enough to go around for your own family.

If you’re into electronics, then you will feel the effects. Sony’s production is affected due to closing of manufacturing plants. Where will the new Playstations come from? Also, Toshiba and other electronics manufacturers have seen temporary plant shut downs. This will affect the microchip processors industry, as Japan supplies much of the world’s electronic goods. So for example, if your computer breaks down, where will you get replacement parts? While Korea and other neighboring countries will pick up the slack in terms of production, not all things from Japan can easily be replaced with the same caliber and quality.

If you own a Japanese vehicle, you will feel the effects of the earthquake. If you have a car accident or your car is in need of repairs, where will you get parts? There’s only so much to go around from Banawe or Casa. The remaining parts in the market will either increase in price or you’ll simply have to do without. If you’re into Anime or Cos-Play, where will you get new input now? This probably means more Filipinos will turn to Korea for pop culture influence.

Another effect the Japanese disaster has had on the country is that is has further opened the eyes of many Filipinos on how to handle a natural disaster. In fact, various comparisons are already being made about how inept or incapable the Philippine government would be at handling even a fraction of the magnitude of the disaster. The common sentiment is at least the Japanese can expect some type of aid or assistance directly from its own government.

As a comparison, over here, whenever there is a calamity or disaster, the first and most prominent to come to aid of many people are not the government agencies responsible for disaster management, but private corporations, especially TV networks Kapuso Foundation and ABS-CBN foundation. If it’s near an election year, you can bet candidates will be sweating it out to hand out noodles and kilos of rice blatantly marked with their names on them.

How the economic and social consequences ripple its effect around the world and here on Philippine shores will be seen in the coming months. In the meantime, we will all wait in baited breath and kneel down in prayer in the hopes that nothing like that happens to our country.

Everyone feels the effects of the catastrophe in Japan. How could you not be affected after seeing the various images of destruction to a country? Although the Japanese are known to be a resilient people, it will be hard not only for the economy to recover, but also to get over the grief of losing too many lives and so much property in one fell sweep.

Photo: “Earthquake Response by the U.S. Navy” by Fox News Insider, c/o Flickr. Some Rights Reserved