As I seek refuge on a narrow awning of a friend's totally drenched kitchen, I watch as boxes and household implements of all kinds and sizes get blown like dust on a gust. Many ipil, g. melina and mahogany trees that have stood proud and tall along the national highway a day before are now reduced into heaps of waste and highway obstruction. And even though I am getting wet, I have to stay on this very spot for my own safety; toward the east and south of my friend's kitchen, I can see GI sheets and various debris go airborne breaking glass windows and destroying the shrubbery and small structures built for pets and livestock...
So reads a part of an entry in my journal dated September 27, 2011. I was in Lamut, Ifugao.
It has been days ago since typhoons Pedring and Quiel pummeled my province and the greater areas of the Cordilleras, Ilocos Region, Cagayan Valley and Central Luzon. In less than a week's gap, these two typhoons ravaged this part of the country leaving 55 people dead, more than a hundred barangays submerged in water, billions of pesos worth of damages in the agriculture sector, 72 collapsed or damaged bridges, and massive electricity and communication services disruption.
Of course the list above does not yet include the aggregate cost of opportunities and value-added lost, the burden on additional health-care expenditure to the already max-strained government budget for health, the yet again diminished capacities of many poor families in the rural and highly populated towns, the strains set on local government units (LGUs) as they try to attend to the physiological and shelter needs of their respective constituents (read: relief goods and evacuation centers), the sky-rocketing prices of foods and commodities especially in the affected areas, and many more.
Typhoons Pedring and Quiel painted a rather grim picture not only on the local but even on the national arena. Residents of many provinces in the Northern Luzon area, whose damaged bridges disconnected them to the commercial or business centers, were on a panic buying mode for fuel and basic commodities never minding the additional cost as long as they would have a supply of their own (a liter of gasoline in the fringes of Ifugao and Mountain Province was at P85 from the original P57). On the other hand, residents of Metro Manila and other regions in Luzon buy their vegetables at an additional 150% – 300% of the prices prior to Pedring (a head of cabbage that I used to buy at P10 now bears a tag price of P30). Meanwhile, the big macroeconomic question is “What consequences will we expect of the country's rice and corn supply when the two typhoons eradicated the promise of a bountiful harvest?”
To have one member of your household die due to the typhoon is a very sad experience. But to be unable to bury your now decomposing dead because your community and the neighboring towns are submerged on hip-high water is a tragedy that is being borne year after year by some unfortunate residents of (pasintabi po) Calumpit, Bulacan and Apalit, Pampanga and some towns of Nueva Ecija, the Ilocos Region and Central Mindanao. There's the problem too that comes to the residents in those areas whenever they feel the number one and number two calls of nature. Not everybody has a toilet at the second or third level of his or her house. Hence, the sight of a floating yellow submarine seems to be as common as ejecting that thing out of the body. Of course there are shy people out there who try to somehow conceal the evidence by dumping their respective night soil on colored plastic bags. Yet these plastic bags are seen floating here, there and everywhere. Consequently, we now start to worry about water-borne diseases aside from the dreaded leptospirosis. But why worry much about the possibility of getting sick (that’s only a possibility!) when the people there are worrying more about obtaining enough drinking water, ready-to-eat foods, clean clothes and water for hygiene purposes?
On my way back to Manila last October 03, I watched as the bus I rode on sped along thousands of hectares of damaged rice and corn fields and rural communities. What used to be a wide expanse of green turned into shallow ponds of gray or light brown. I saw partially damaged houses made of concrete and GI sheets while nipa huts stood roofless and windowless. And as I witnessed more destruction along the way, my reverie delved on the plights of debt-ridden farmers struggling with adversities. And now, this. Ah, what a misery!
The calamity brought about by Pedring and Quiel is yet another call for the Filipino nation to seriously take to heart the threat of climate change. This particular picture is not an isolated case. It happened a few months back when strong rains and clogged water ways caused the sudden inundation of Cebu and Davao and Cotabato. It happened two years ago when typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng flooded Metro Manila, Laguna and Northern Luzon. It happened a couple of years ago when Harurot and Yoyong took away the lives of our loved ones including our houses, livestocks and near-harvests. It happened almost five or six years ago when the strong rains caused too much flash floods and landslides in Aurora and Quezon Provinces. It happened more than a decade ago in Ormoc City. In Antipolo. In Albay. In Camarines Sur. In many places.
The time for us to get ourselves educated and act on climate change is long past due. Acting on climate change is not the sole responsibility of the government. We as private individuals and citizens of this country must do our part, too, for the government alone is not responsible for this rather lack of preparedness and awareness among the general populace. The challenge for the government is not only to pass and really enforce laws on environmental protection; it also has to educate us about climate change and disaster risk reduction and control. On the other hand, we as individuals should also gather our acts and start to love and protect our environment. But this alone is not enough. We must start a revolution of the mind. We must start changing the distorted ways by which we view ourselves, our environment, our society and our government. The era of apathy and selfish convenience must end.
Now is the time for the Filipino nation to act in mitigating the adverse effects of climate change. Not only for the sake of our present lives or properties or environment but more so for that of the future generation's. This much we owe to them. This much, at least.
Now is the time to act. As one body. As one nation.
Mira-Nila Homes, Quezon City
October 08, 2011
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