Our country and typhoons

Typhoon Glenda  is moving with force and fury through Samar,Bicol, northern Cebu, and the rest of Luzon. We join everyone pray for safety and protection.

It is a known fact that our country is within the typhoon and earthquake belts and within the ring of fire with its numerous volcanoes.

For centuries, our people have been challenged by these disasters and sadly, until now, we have not yet learned how to effectively cope or manage these disasters. Every typhoon, every earthquake, every eruption in the past provided learning lessons to protect people, to protect more resources. By now most , if not all our people and communities should have been empowered to protect themselves and their areas. However, what should have been golden opportunities to meet challenges were generally ignored and missed. Only a few localities that are disaster-resilient come to mind - Albay, Naga, and San Francisco, Camotes.

To repeat, with so many disasters experienced, our people should already by now been empowered to protect themselves and their communities. Sadly, we are not yet in that stage. When will or shall we ever get to that state of resiliency and preparedness?

Typhoon Glenda reminds us once again about the need for preparedness and effective management. Why were there stranded ships with passengers and bancas allowed to sail despite the reliable typhoon forecast? Was evacuation carried out early enough to avoid harm, injury, and death among our people? Were evacuation centers prepared to care for the evacuees? Were class and work suspensions announced early enough to protect our students and workers?

When this typhoon will have passed, will we wake up to good news of no lives lost and no major injuries or damages to lives and resources? We pray so. Our information and preparedness should get better after every typhoon and other disasters. How can we bring our people and our country to that level of effective disaster preparedness and resiliency?

Atty. Golly Ramos posted , " As typhoon 'Glenda" batters Bicol and affected areas, my thoughts, from distant shores, center on how the Philippines can possibly weather the physical, political, social and environmental storms that threaten the very foundation of government and our way of life. Can we be united and work hand in hand to make the future of our children less threatening as it now is?"

Natural disasters are not only our disasters. As a people, we have gone through and continue to go through several types of storms in our history, in our everyday life. Together, we should learn how to cope effectively with these varied types of storms.

Consider our government, from the past to the present. Our government and our political system have been disastrous for all so far, with so much vested interests, personal and family greed and corruption prioritized more than public welfare. More than natural disasters, this political disaster continue to inflict harm and damage to our people, to our country.

Can we ever go beyond corrupt politicians and have a more participative, transparent, public-service oriented type of governance? Like disasters, can we finally learn to protect our people and our country from disastrous politics and politicians?

For many generations now, there have been countless Filipinos who offered their lives to empower our people and to transform our country into a more resilient, more protective and secured land for all, especially the vulnerable groups. Like disasters, however, disastrous politics and governance are still around inflicting harm and danger to our people. Like other types of disasters, shall we allow this type of disastrous politics and politicians to continue to destroy our people and our country?

We echo Atty. Golly's call- "Can we be united and work hand in hand to make the future of our children less threatening as it now is?"

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