Prayer power

The storm trackers and weather forecasters both here and abroad were not apparently mistaken. Typhoon Ruby, (international name Hagupit) was supposedly the strongest tropical cyclone ever to hit our country this year. Except for a slight variation on the typhoon’s path, their scientific predictions about Ruby’s fury were strikingly similar and quite accurate. Even their estimate of the date and time when the storm would make a landfall coincided with each other. Hence the media build up over her arrival into our shores was just expected. Because of the extensive media coverage, people from all walks of life really came to know about this storm and somehow braced themselves for her coming.

Indeed due to the blow by blow account of Ruby’s powerful wallop and the up to the minute report on her exact location as she approached land in Eastern Samar, our countrymen in the affected areas were definitely better prepared than last year when Yolanda (International name: Haiyan) hit our shores. Learning from what happened last year which caused so much loss of lives and damage to property, residents in the areas to be hit voluntarily evacuated to designated evacuation centers set up ahead of time. Enough water, food, clothing and relief goods were also readily provided to the victims and the emergency situation did not last long as last year.

But aside from being better prepared this time around, the entire nation undoubtedly prayed harder and more ardently stormed the heavens so as to be spared from the typhoon’s wrath. This is one aspect of the event which we should not ignore or take for granted. All our human efforts and endeavors to protect ourselves from the dire consequences of any calamity will not be as effective as when we accompany them with soulful prayers. In fact because we prayed hard as this typhoon approached, it’s much heralded and scientifically predicted destructive force turned into a considerably less harmful and weak tropical depression as it passed through other parts of our country until it finally left our shores. So we should never forget to pray to our Lord Jesus Christ, the only one who can calm the storm as He vividly demonstrated when He came down to earth more than 2,000 years ago.

The recent catastrophe once more reminds us that the Philippines is located within the typhoon belt and thus will be regularly hit by tropical cyclones year in and year out. Yet up to now, we have not yet developed a more or less permanent way of coping with this natural calamities and at least minimizing their disastrous effects on peoples’ lives and property. We prepare only when the calamity is about to strike and our preparations are merely temporary. It is about time that we should change this ad hoc style of meeting this regular and permanent problem.

By now, our government must have already pinpointed and determined that the eastern portions of the Visayas particularly Samar, Leyte, Bohol and Romblon, as well as the Bicol Region particularly Catanduanes and Albay are along the typhoons’ path and thus bear the brunt of the havoc they cause every year. Maybe our government should start pinpointing the extremely dangerous zones in those provinces and permanently relocate the residents therein to much safer places and sturdier houses within the same province instead of just transferring them to evacuation centers every time  a typhoon occurs. Evacuation centers must be set up only in extremely dangerous conditions.

It is also very noticeable from the news photos taken along the devastated areas that most, if not all of the houses built thereon are made of light materials, the bahay kubo type. So it is about time that our government housing agencies should assist those residents in putting up typhoon resistant houses that are not easily blown away or washed out by rains and floods. They should not just be evacuated every year when the typhoon comes and allowed to return to their houses which are oftentimes totally destroyed.

In fact Batanes is already a model that can be emulated in this connection. This province is also one of the places in the country regularly and frequently hit by strong tropical cyclones. So the residents of the place with encouragement and assistance from the government were able to design houses which can withstand the strongest storms frequenting their province. I am sure that up to now, typhoons still regularly hit that place, but seldom do we now hear news and see pictures of ruined houses there like what we are seeing now in the other provinces along the typhoons’ path.         

Hopefully our government will try to take more concrete and permanent steps to effectively cope with these regular disastrous occurrences in those parts of our country.

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Another noteworthy topic currently in the news is the regular poll surveys on the presidential race. Even if the next presidential election is still in 2016, our pollsters are already in the midst of conducting polls regarding supposed voter preferences among the possible candidates for president. Of course past experiences have shown that these surveys seem to be accurate since they more or less coincide with the actual outcome of the elections. Nevertheless, I still believe that these polls bring more harm than good to our electoral process. Firstly, it is really quite unconvincing that asking an alleged cross section of our voting population numbering 1,200 only could reflect the preference of the entire 55 million voting population. Secondly, with our electorate not so educated yet, they tend to choose candidates based on winability and not on the capability of the candidates. And so those leading in the alleged surveys, whether qualified and honest or not, can possibly romp into victory. This is the reason why, up to now, we have not seemingly chosen the right person to be our president. So prayers are also needed by our country in the kind of politics we now have.

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