Disaster From Floods in the Philippines

by the Resource Recovery Movement, Center for Human and Society

In the recent period, floods plagued a considerable area, encompassing broad sections across the globe.

Heavy recent flooding in India and Serbia, China, Japan among many other areas around the world

With heavy inundations such as these that can often kill with their own sheer power by drowning, is there still a need for the water to be poisonous, toxic and very much hazardous to health or even deadly enough to kill?

In the Philippines, not the Secretary of the Department of National Defense now a bit too advanced in years unlike many past defense secretaries who braved calamities and got wet and dirty on the ground, but the helmsman of the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (NDRRMC) is a mite too busy nowadays. The chief is extremely tied up in many corners that at most times the poor disaster response executive does not even know where to plant his foot next.

Yet it is an inescapable Catch-22 situation. If the new chief of the Philippine Office of Civil Defense and the Secretariat of the NDRRMC follows the examples of his bosses, just stay put and let things unveil all by themselves, the people will be angry.

If the NDRRMC head appears very mobile and busy, the people are still not going to be appeased. They will be just as angry anyway. No option is a better one, even that of balancing between not doing anything and making an effort to be hyperactive.

A senseless new tragedy most recently hit the Philippines - not so much a tragedy as thousands of helpless citizens getting killed.

The powerful storm caused a maritime vessel Maharlika II in Cebu to drown, leaving as many as more than one hundred casualties. As of this writing, 70 persons are missing due to the tragedy.

All over the nation: Floods and landslides, destroyed crops, dead farm animals

ruined houses, buildings, vital installations and much more other forms of damage

A really sensible government will take every means to prevent people from getting caught in floods. Sadly enough, this is never true in the Philippines and not in many places around the world. They will simply snort: Expensive solutions! No one specially me needs them! So they let whole communities drown or suffer getting submerged waist or neck-deep in murky, life-threatening floodwaters

Both children and adults brave the waters in floods. No one puts the fear in their hearts that doing so is extremely dangerous to their health and the effects may only be felt after a long time.

 

Posted Under Themes:

#MarioPH

#Fong-Wong #Fung-Wong

#Flood

#Philippines

#FloodControl

#RescuePH

#Rescue

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Supplemental Themes and Tags:

Cabinet Clusters, collection of STP fees, commercial establishments, damage wetland ecosystems, death, deep in water, Department of National Defense, devastation of riverine ecosystems, disasters, diseases, Divisoria, effluent, flood control, flood-borne epidemic, government offices, graft and corruption, health hazard, life-threatening, Lopez, Lucio Tan Foremost Farms, malls and factories Pasig River, Manila Water, Manila Waterworks Sewerage Systems, Marikina Basin, Maynilad, more than 10 billions of STP fee collection, National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council, Philippines, poision, preventive, pro-active, release dam water, sale of relief goods for Yolanda, Secretary Voltaire T. Gazmin, septage, septage treatment plant, septic tank, sewage treatment, sewerage, solution to flood, spend public money, STP, surface runoff water, Tacloban Basin, toxin, Tropical Storm, Tutuban Mall, typhoon, Undersecretary Alexander Pama.

Forecasting impending disaster

The Philippines:

Forecasting with confidence

Self-doubting prophecy

For nearly five years ago today, it was suggested to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) to enhance its satellite capability instead of simply getting hand-me-down issuances from UN OOSA (United Nations Outer Space Affairs and the NOAA (United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and the other geospatial information and intelligence agencies all over the world.

At a certain point in time around the period of the occurrence of the devastation by tropical storm Ketsana (Ondoy) in the Philippines, the PAGASA was clamoring for the purchase and installation of its Doppler radar system, an outmoded and unreliable system for weather forecasting.

In 2010, all throughout the government circuit, the company of Mr. Philip King called AAA, went on a lecture-presentation effort to sell the sensing and image capture technology developed by a Malaysian scientist and technology specialist who was also engaged in a similar high technology, extensive venture for the government of Canada, among other countries.

Had the Department of Science and Technology considered using a network of sensing stations with clear-photo capture capability on a 1-camera-per-station (or possibly a cluster of cameras), weather forecasting in the country, aided with charity hand-outs from NOAA, UNOOSA, the European Union, among other satellite capable agencies, will definitely be more precise at the same time vivid and viewable in real time.

It was foreseen in this site that absolutely nothing will be allowed by Typhoon Ketsana (Ondoy) to block its path. As early as the morning of the raging of this typhoon that PAGASA decided to merely attribute the powerful rains and killer floods to monsoons, it was already the consensus among the advocates that started this site that many people will die by Ketsana (Ondoy). More > >

Winning the heart of Congress Senate and Malacanang

The Draft Senate Bill for creating the Visayas Rehabilitation Commission and allocating funds thereto and for other purposes (Click the image at right to see the dirty draft of the bill)

It is recalled being told to the people in the Senate of the Philippines, that our group even if we do not mean ill of others, often tell things in the harsh version of the truth without any cosmetics nor embellishments. Sometimes our group even tells things in words that cannot even be swallowed, specially when the recipient has something hidden under the sleeves.

It is always best to qualify and mitigate vitriol however with kindness and thoughtfulness. This is one of those times. We wish to commend three different parties in this message:

1.  The Congress

Speaker of the House of Representatives Feliciano Belmonte, who made it known to all and sundry that he was speaking with Members of the Congress who were reachable during the present recess period, and reaching an agreement with them that they are going to give up their PDAF money in favor of the victims of calamities in Tacloban, Samar, etc. It will appear in the latter part of this message that that will no longer happen, seeing as it is that PDAF has already been TROed by the Supreme Court. 

2.  The Senate

During the Bohol-Cebu Earthquake, the Senate, that is mired in the middle of the controversy of the PDAF, DAP (enormous amounts figuring in bribery for the impeachment of now deposed Chief Justice Renato C. Corona) as a whole body, passed a Senate Resolution to give Six Million Philippine Pesos (PHP6-M). The money is not even comparable to booger (kulangot) in the face of the multi-billions freely being given away by government to dressed for funeral public officials and their contractor co-conspirators with similarly well dressed up documents. The Senate was in a quandary over the recent tragedy that hit Visayas again; it appears that giving PHP6-M will be very embarrassing. They cooked up an idea that the private sector will shell out big donations that will then be deducted from the taxes that businessmen pay to the government. Spokesman E Lacierda says that they have to craft a law to that effect.

3.  Malacanang

The Office of the President is the last stop in the making of a law that will grant rehabilitation funds for disaster affected areas. Mr. Aquino the 3rd has to sign the law to put it into effect.

In the past, Mr. Aquino the 3rd's late mother, Pres. Cory Aquino, agreed and signed into law the allocation of independent or autonomous budgets specifically and strictly dedicated to the rehabilitation of Baguio after the Killer Earthquake of 16 July 1990 and the rehabilitation of Central Luzon after the Mt. Pinatubo volcanic eruption in 15 June 1991. Around PHP2 Billion went to Baguio and PHP7 Billion for Central Luzon (the original integrated incomprehensible and embarrassing damage assessment was only PHP800-Million) became PHP10-Billion.

We therefore write to Salute the Senate and Malacanang, and sooner than later, before we forget, Congress for the statement to media of Senator Francis Escudero, Chair, Senate Finance Committee that from out of the budgets of the various departments, funds for the rehabilitation of Visayas will be taken out and re-allocated for the Visayas Rehabilitation Effort. The total rehabilitation fund will be Ten Billion Philippine Pesos (PHP10-Billion). Shrewd little devil, that one. And in 2014 or before, other laws may be made by the Legislative to effectively allocate added funds for the Visayas Rehabilitation Effort. (We tweeted shrewd little devil earlier about the Visayas Rehabilitation.)

Capping the triumphant announcement of our dearly beloved politicians, Malacanang made a public statement a few minutes ago that it interposes no objections to the direction of the Legislative and the way the 2014 national budget will be diminished by PHP10-Billion.

Salute to all of you, Senate and Malacanang and in advance Congress for allowing the people to win you over to the side of the helpless and suffering surviving victims of the disaster and their communities that have been ravaged by the powerful blows of the earthquake (it is recently doing several encores) and Typhoon Yolanda.

We will not relent in our campaign for the allocation of a larger fund for the recovery and reconstruction of affected areas.

But lest we forget, while we interpose our non-objection to the recent announcements of Senate and Malacanang (and in the near future, Congress) may we reiterate the headache we are giving you to modernize Phivolcs, Pagasa, Namria, the entire DOST and other related agencies that have something to do with disaster preparedness. Most of all, kindly do not forget to allocate merienda and softdrinks for the NDRRMC when they hold a series of seminars about re-engineering their disaster risk reduction strategy and Bible Reading on how not to keep people in super suspense whether their relatives are alive or dead.

Thank you very much again dear officials for small favors. We are not through with you, yet.