Bretman Rock, a Filipino-American influencer, expressed his sentiments about the onslaught of typhoons that have hit Luzon, particularly Typhoon Ulysses. The beauty YouTuber was born and raised in Sanchez Mira, Cagayan – one of the towns that greatly suffered from the calamity – before he moved to Hawaii, so it’s no surprise that he would want to shed light on the situation going on in the affected areas.
Aside from tweeting about the typhoon to spread awareness, Bretman also took to Instagram to elaborate more about what’s going on and how it “literally hits close to home” for him.
“I grew up there, and so, the past couple of days, they have been struck by many typhoons and I know there’s more on the way and my town is literally submerged underwater,” he shared in an Instagram story. “I’ve been seeing a lot of videos on Twitter [of people] literally crying and begging for help, and it’s just so crazy to me because those are literally my people, people I grew up around, and people from my town.”
“I don’t think that I should be praised for something that I should be doing,” he added after saying he just wanted to bring some awareness to the situation. “I mean, I grew up there, and I really would not be the person that I am today without being from there.”
Then, he also took the time to call out the Philippine government for their lack of responses, saying, “What’s really interesting about that is that the government in the Philippines is not doing anything about it. I don’t wanna get in trouble but… the government is really just acting like nothing is going on and it’s just so crazy to me, honestly.”
The influencer isn’t alone on the sentiment. In the past few days, citizens have been criticizing the lack of disaster preparedness of the government and holding the administration accountable for their insufficient calamity response. #NasaanAngPangulo even trended again a few days ago over his absence after the typhoon, making it the second time in just a few weeks that President Duterte has been called to be present and fulfill the demands of the people for better disaster response.
Read: #NasaanAngPangulo trends as Typhoon Ulysses hits Luzon
