According to my favorite weather website, the region has four active storms. Two have already entered the country, and two are headed this way. November has usually seen its share of powerful typhoons so we can only hope it does not happen. But judging by what the website is showing, Luzon is in for more rain and wind.
I remember when storms would normally batter the Bicol Region but that has drastically changed. It seems the Cagayan Region has taken its place. Proponents of climate change are blaming carbon emissions for the drastic shift. There is a whole debate about whether climate change is a real phenomenon, especially in the United States. The recent campaigns of both the Republican and Democratic parties did touch on this. Republicans, primarily Donald Trump call it a hoax and even attack the use of electric vehicles. Democrats, of course, are on the other side of the spectrum. With Donald Trump winning an unprecedented second term after defeating Kamala Harris, the fate of electric vehicles in the US hangs in the balance. He may make good on his threat to impose tariffs that economists said would wreak havoc on the economy.
We are experiencing consecutive storms this month. Does the government have enough calamity funds to deal with the aftermaths of these disturbances? Perhaps this is why there is talk of forming an agency similar to or patterned after the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to have a coordinated effort in disaster response. I’m not sure if provinces have learned their lesson from Yolanda, the strongest typhoon to hit the country in decades, by building permanent, typhoon-proof relocation centers for evacuees.
There needs to be a substantial increase in the budget allocation for calamities, and not on confidential or intelligence funds. Thank goodness Congress has seen it fit to trim the budget allocations of some government offices and agencies. It is more important to help those in need during calamities instead of whatever these confidential and intelligence funds are used for. Some cannot even properly explain where they were used. No surprises there.
I believe climate change to be real. But wealthy nations have always been reluctant to cut their greenhouse gas emissions. They still love to drive their internal combustion engine-powered vehicles. And the argument that it takes fossil fuels to generate energy to charge electric vehicles does have legs to stand on. We may never see a drastic change in attitude toward climate change. Until then, we just have to take these typhoons head-on.