EDITORIAL - Brace yourselves for more

In the rush to get Wednesday's big story --- the relatively mild quake that triggered a massive blackout that crippled the entire Visayas and parts of Luzon --- journalists realized there were two questions the public wanted answered.

One needed an immediate answer: When will the power be restored? The other will need some time to answer: What is being done to ensure that Cebu does not get crippled by a blackout, for whatever reason, similarly again?

The reason why the two questions were foremost in people's minds as they agonized for hours in the sweltering summer heat (Wednesday was a full 33 degrees Celsius in Cebu) is pretty obvious --- power drives our lives.

Why, in an island that does not have a dam or some other passable reservoir, even the water resource is dependent on available electricity, having to be extracted from the ground by electricity-driven pumps. No power, no water. What can be more excruciating than that.

So, as the agonizing hours wore on, journalists were bombarded with the same question over and over from the public: Do you know when the power can be restored? It was a question we can only pass on to the proper authorities. We cannot provide the answer ourselves.

Eventually, though, the power slowly crept back into the system, and into our lives. By about 8 PM of the same day, or about 10 hours since the quake struck and the lines went dead, power was restored in most areas.

The other question, which was about what is being done to ensure we do not get crippled by a blackout again, is so much more difficult for anyone to answer. Difficult because if an answer is demanded right now, right this very moment, it would have to be a big fat no.

There is nothing that is being done at the moment because the main preoccupation of the national leadership is to protect itself from its political enemies. And its political enemies only want power for power's sake, not because they think they can do any better.

Even if there is a change in leadership, or a change in the form of government, the same greed-driven characteristics will still prevail. Any lasting solutions to the country's ills will always be relegated to the back seat. So brace yourselves. More will be coming.