THERE is no overstating the fact that on the anniversary of Haiyan what is demanded of us is a reckoning. It should be a time to look honestly at what has been done, what remains neglected, and in what state the survivors have been left. It is a time for truthfully assessing what it was that government did wrong, how – despite insisting that they warned the people of Samar and Leyte about the magnitude of the storm – government itself was unprepared for Haiyan.

And they need to answer for it. As they do need to deliver a more honest response to the fact – the truth – that survivors continue to feel neglected and uncared for, where the standard dole-outs and the press releases about “building better” have not meant real and concrete change for these communities. Where it is clear that whatever the sense that these places have already “gone back to normal” is really far from the truth, because this storm has redefined what “normal” is.