The Philippine Online Chronicles

It happened again. Ondoy-like rain pounded the country and BOOM, flooding occurred. It was so bad that as of yesterday, parts of Isabela where Pedring and Quiel made landfall were still off the grid. There are two things we need to remember.

First, the reality is, this is the new norm. Setting things like Climate Change aside, Filipinos tend to forget that the Earth— our environment— is constantly changing.

Erosion happens. Rivers become shallow, roads crack. A roof leaks. Water turns into Ice. Ice turns back into water. Things break. Things change from one form to another.

Babies grow up, to be adults. It is why Death happens. The old must always give in to the new. It is why new discoveries give us greater understanding of this universe.

And the very Earth we live in didn’t look the way it does now. Continental drift, Earthquakes, Storms, Tsunamis, Volcanic eruptions— and so many other things have contributed to the way things are now. What makes any of us think the Earth is constant? As science has explained to us, everything changes.

Constantly.

What does this have to do with places that didn’t use to flood, are now flooded? Do you think that just by being humans, we don’t change the environment? The few trees we have, doesn’t account for anything? That our fishing doesn’t change the environment? And that the whole of humanity hasn’t in anyway changed things?

Everything changes.

Second, the reason why so many people have so far suffered is that they have ignored warnings to pack, to go.

Going into Pedring, the warning came out that this was going to be a dangerous storm. It came out on television. It came out on the radio. It came out. The news wasn’t a secret to local governments. To people with a decent television, and that makes up much of the population in Pampanga and Bulacan that got hit.

In the radio the other day, I was listening to Noli de Castro interviewing a flooding victim, and do you know what she said? They couldn’t leave their livelihood behind. They couldn’t leave the cows, and the chickens because that’s how they get their food. People being rescued refused to leave, preferring to stay.

People are that poor.

People are that starving.

People are that destitute.

On a side note, that’s decades of Filipino leadership failure right there.

Decades.

Not just Aquino’s; not just Arroyo’s and not just Estrada’s, but decades of mismanagement and decades of failure, and there is no other way to put that.

Going back to the main thread, so yeah, that Senate hearing they called into to check whether dams were the cause of all the problems? Why are you pandering to public opinion that it was the dams that led to the flooding?

If the dams didn’t release the water, and it collapsed, do you think that’s a bigger problem to deal with? If the dams released water and no rain came to replace the water, wouldn’t that also cause a water crisis in return?

There was flooding because there was a lot of rain that fell.

Period.

Water would have to go somewhere, does it not? It would flow from the mountains and find its own path.

Who do people give responsibility for letting the dams unleash water in the first place? You don’t need a new agency for it. The government is already set up to do it. You have the Secretary of Defense who could give the order. You have provincial governors on the advice of PAGASA to order it. What do you need a new agency to take responsibility when you have these people in place to do it?

PAGASA monitors all the rivers in the Philippines. Marikina River was well watched. You had media covering the increase height of La Mesa Dam during Pedring. So it seems to me that the people who didn’t do their jobs were the local governments. Local government for years have been asking for greater accountability, and in times like this there has to be greater accountability on their part.

If the preparations that were in the news prior to Pedring and Quiel were of any indication, MMDA acted properly. Why didn’t nearby provinces like Pampanga and Bulacan, which were at greater risk acting? Or was that simply a case of not being in the news?

How is it that Provincial Governors have little say in what happens to their provinces, except when they need relief goods? Why aren’t they taking an open, and active part in Civil Defense?

It is hogwash to think that only the President of the Philippines is capable of making active decisions, especially when the obvious is coming your way. The MMDA and Manila’s local governments fared better this time around because they learned a lesson from Ondoy, so why can’t Bulacan and Pampanga do the same? Why can’t other provinces do the same?

There are local versions of the National Disaster and Risk Management Council. Do we need new protocols?

Yes, there should be new protocols. The protocols should involve the grassroots level so they can organize people. When word comes down that you have a really powerful storm coming your way, then information has to get to the different Barangays. The first level should be the Barangay captains and councils must have an organized way of getting their people out of harms way. Then the next level of responsibility goes to the different mayors. Surely, they can pickup a phone and contact their Barangay Captains for a Situation Report. Right? Surely, it isn’t difficult to ask Barangay Captains, “Did you get everyone to the prepositioned evacuation zone?”

The people of London knew how to hide when Bombs started falling from the sky. They knew how to hide in the Underground. People in the Philippines already know which places are designated evacuation centers, and how many people are in the barangay, and how much food will be needed to feed everyone for N days they are there.

Why is this important?

The Department of Budget and Management can then determine how much food to deploy. Congress can verify this number. We also know based on risk studies which places are the safest to store food, and rescue equipment. Surely, there is a plan in place to be able to preposition those? And certainly, we do have soldiers to make sure that no one steals them, correct?

Yes, I am well aware of the nature of Philippine bureaucracy. Somewhere down the road someone will be out there trying to game the system. If we get that cynical thought get the better of us, what then?

Certainly, efficient systems will take time to build. Time and money that the nation can’t afford, yet. But People have to start from somewhere. There has to be a really, well developed plan going forward.

The Philippines is in the path of storms. Filipinos have known this all their lives. We get 20 storms and more each year. And each year we expect to ride it all out again, thinking the results will be different. Civil Defense is a part of our lives.

Every Japanese citizen is trained to react accordingly to Earthquakes. Why can’t we train our people to react accordingly to all manner of disaster? We have storms. We have Earthquakes. One of these years, we’re going to get a Tsunami, and Earthquake because that’s just nature of probability and the fact that the country is sitting on top of the Pacific Ring of Fire, just raises that likelihood, like a lot, lot. Don’t you think?

The Senate hearing of blame who opened the dam isn’t helping. It is simply pandering to public opinion. Opinion that people who got flooded developed because it is human nature to blame someone for disaster. Ladies and gentlemen, climate change is here to stay, and if Pedring and Ondoy, are any indication it doesn’t get much easier.  We can’t do anything about that, or about the few resources the nation have right now, but we can be smarter in saving lives, and hopefully along the way, even some infrastructure.

Do we need new emergency protocols?  Yes, and one that involves everyone from the grassroots up, and one where the burden of responsibility is clear, and accountability is certainly in the hands of every Filipino.

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Screenshot by author, via Weather Underground and ProPinoy.