VOLUNTEERS and real heroes. The outpouring of love and help has been amazing. The volunteers, the regular citizens who are doing what they can to help the victims of ?Ondoy? give the rest of us hope that there may be a future for this country after all.

Facebook/Twitter. We?ve said this many times ? the Internet is power. And the past days have proven this true even more.

Jam 88.3. They allowed Gang Badoy to take the reins and change the rules of FM radio. For days, Jam 88.3 became the connection of people to the outside world, providing them with information and a voice to air their thoughts on the calamity, their needs and their fears. These past days, Jam 88.3 was not just a radio station, it was a source of power, a beacon of light.

Jericho Rosales and Gerald Anderson. These real-life heroes fearlessly braved the murky water to rescue people. Jericho on his surfboard, Gerald in his wet suit: These guys aren?t just easy on the eyes ? they have good and brave hearts too. And the best part? They refuse to give media interviews about their feat.

Fairy tale ? not. Cristine Reyes was trapped on her roof in Provident Villages, Marikina. According to unconfirmed reports, she could have been rescued three hours earlier but refused. Why? She was supposedly waiting for Richard Gutierrez to rescue her. Richard, who borrowed a boat to rescue his leading lady, reportedly refused to save anyone else. Not a picture of chivalry. Countless people now wonder if this was just a publicity stunt for their upcoming movie. The worst part? The Associated Press picked up the story and the story of this Filipino actor saving a damsel in distress hit the pages of The New York Times and Washington Post.

Mikey Arroyo. He denies being at Rustan?s? liquor section while the country was being ravaged by ?Ondoy.? So who is this guy in the picture?

Manny Villar and his name labels. Do those styro packs really come from him? Giving is good but not when you feel like plastering your name all over the styrofoam packs.

Jacque Bermejo. This Filipina overseas worker in Dubai faced the wrath of Filipino Internet users when she posted this message on Facebook ?buti n lng am hir in dubai! maybe so many sinner bak der! so yeah deserving wat hapend!? She has since denied posting this message, swearing that a hacker did it. There are now a number of Facebook groups and pages dedicated to Jacque Bermejo ? from the ?Jacque Bermejo Fanclub? and ?Jacque Bermejo is Innocent!? to ?Jacque Bermejo Persona Non Grata? and ?Jacque Bermejo Mamatay Ka Na.? Hacker or no hacker, the story of Jacque Bermejo has distracted people from what they should be focusing on ? that countless people still need help and they need it now.

Yubin Kim and the fake Twitter account. For days, people expressed rage over the tweets about ?Filipino monkeys? that one member of the Korean group Wonder Girls had been posting. One tweet read, ?@carmento I hope it keeps raining and die in floods like those filipino monkeys ;-)? Twitter has since shut down this account, saying an impostor created the account. But like the Jacque Bermejo story, it distracted people from what they need to do ? go out and do something to help ?Ondoy?s? victims.

Profiteers. In times of calamities, you really get to see the best and the worst of people. There were a number of reports of supermarkets and drugstores raising their prices, of men on boats charging insane amounts to shuttle people across the flood. There?s a time to make money ? now is not one of them.

Crazy rumors and false reports have made people panic ? that they were releasing water from Marikina dam (but no such dam exists, according to Napocor), that there were piranhas in the floodwater. These stories spread quickly and made people panic even more. To whoever started these rumors: Not funny, not funny at all.

Politicians and photo-ops. We understand the need to find the silver lining in the darkest of clouds. But please, grow a brain. ?Ondoy? was not meant to be your campaign tool.