EDITORIAL - Time to share our blessings

Typhoon Rolly has devastated several areas in Luzon, particularly in the Bicol Region. Until now many areas are still impassable because of the debris and the destruction. Many areas are also without power. They are also faced with the disheartening estimate that it will only be fully restored by December yet.

Many local governments are in dire need of supplies. Particularly, they are asking for food, water, and medicines.

In response, the Cebu City government is now asking for donations of bottled water and canned goods to be sent to the area. It also plans to send a team to help in the clearing operations.

Not to be outdone, the Cebu City Police Office also launched their own donation drive for the typhoon-hit areas. The Police Regional Office-7, in coordination with the Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas, also plans to deploy a hundred men to the area to help with relief efforts.

It’s in times like these that the Bayanihan Spirit of the Cebuano shines through.

Owing to its central location in the country, the generosity of its people, and a very strong sense of pakikiramay (simpatiya in our own language), Cebu has a long history of being among the first to respond to disasters around the country.

Of note, in the 1990s we were the first to come to the aid of Ormoc City after massive floods left over 8,000 dead and the city devastated. Then over a decade later there was the landslide in Guinsaugon, Southern Leyte. Then more recently in 2013, there was super typhoon Yolanda, touted as the strongest storm to ever make landfall in recorded history, that almost entirely leveled Tacloban City.

In those disasters, as well as several others, Cebu was always among the first to send aid.

Now people need our help again.

We were blessed to have been spared the worst of recent typhoons. We are also blessed to see our COVID infections going down. It’s time to share some of our blessings with our more unfortunate brothers and sisters.