On November 8, 2013, a storm of such great force and magnitude that had not hit this earth before landed and wrought havoc and indescribable damage in the fair islands of the Philippines. Thousands of people lost their lives, many of whom lay for days under the debris.
The survivors many of whom were children, started to look around for their relatives.
The adults started to dig, hampered with lack of proper equipments and the stench of decaying bodies, with very little help from the government authorities.
They are used to this’ government assistance coming in very slowly if at all. “Walang reklamo, tuloy ang trabaho. “There was no place to go to lay their heads down; no food, no clean water
“Sanay ang Filipino sa ganitong mga pangyayari, it is not that the government is not willing to help, it is just that they are slow in organizing assistance.
There were more deaths and sickness after the storm due to lack of food, clean water, medicine and medical assistance for those that were injured.
But this is the age of modern technology. Pictures of the wreckage went viral. The world was informed and assistance started to pour in.
Families with relatives abroad immediately tried to contact their kin to give assistance. This was difficult because communications in the affected areas were cut.
Foreign journalists started to help locate lost relatives and started to establish contact.
Food, clothing, medicine and other prime necessities that arrived in plane loads could not be distributed in very rural areas because the roads disappeared. Debris was everywhere and clearing up was very slow.
This time the Filipino people were seen and heard around the world expressing their extreme hardships and appealing for help.
Organizations from all over the world, governmental and non-governmental moved as one, in rescue.
World Vision, UNICEF, Red Cross, CUSO, Church organizations, Global Media, Doctors without Borders and many more, sent aid.
The Philippines, which does not often hit the headlines in international affairs, was in every news hour, everywhere in the world.
The Filipinos in the affected areas would rise again. After they had buried their dead and prayed for them, they would gather the remnants from the debris and build a shelter at the very spot where their little home formerly stood.
They would gather their nets and start fishing again. The rice and corn fields would be tended. The schools would reopen, after the storm.
Many of them would not have a specific grave to visit; they could not even identify their dead loved ones who went to a common grave. Many of them would have nightmares on how their loved ones died, but all of these —– in time —will pass away.
They would be very busy for their own survival, after the storm.
And the government, it is hoped would learn from this catastrophe and be better prepared for another.
We cannot be sure this is the last one. We get storms every year. We would need enormous amounts of pork barrel for this part of our country. It is hoped it goes to the survivors of Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) and not in the pockets of a few influential people.
But surely, maybe slowly, the Visayans will rise again —-after the storm. (That is the Filipino optimism!).
Now let us turn to the storms in our midst.
The debacle at the Toronto City Hall appears to be a storm in a teacup as compared to the one in the Philippines. It has gone longer with moments of quiet like being in the eye of a storm and then the bad winds blow again.
There seemed to be no real casualties among the protagonists except perhaps the city itself wherein its council had been paralyzed now and then.
The media people are on the alert for new “Breaking News” waiting for strong winds to blow with new evidences that might be revealed by the courts any day.
The dark storm clouds are still there, but the city keeps on working everyday with business as usual.
Would this storm carry on up to 2014? Who would be the casualties?
The storm in the federal level seemed to have quieted down after the suspension of three senate members.
But ominous winds were felt again lately with the involvement of several other senators and suspicions of the role of the prime minister’s office.
It is often said that a secret does not remain a secret when more than one person knows about it,
The storm in the Senate is man-made forces of power against one another. It does not show a sign of immediate passing away.
Casualties are fighting back.
This storm can blow the whole organization away. Will it really be the beginning of the end of the Senate?
Do storms have beneficial effects?
Floods created by typhoons leave the soil richer when the water ebbs away.
Calamities seem to draw the good side of individuals out – the kindness, compassion and will to help people who are in dire need.
The storm at the Toronto City Hall had drawn the members of council close together.
It is hoped that the 11/9/13 storm in the Philippines would lessen the greed of the powerful in the Philippines and extend the blessings of this beloved land of mine to the poor, vulnerable and hardworking fellow countrymen.