We beg to differ.
When former President Gloria Arroyo (GMA) was in power, people were quick to blame her government for what happened during the flooding brought about by typhoon Ondoy in September 2009. Yes, her government could have done more to prevent the flooding but the deluge brought forth by the rains induced by the storm that caused…
Read More “Is PNoy to blame for the recent flooding in Luzon?” »
The virtue of ‘resilience’ has become a dirty word now in the Philippines as third-time unlucky Manila is again hit by another one of those “one-in-one-hundred” calamities that were once the key statistical notion underpinning urban planners’ archaic flood “control” master plans. Although response to the disaster has “improved”, the feel-good rhetoric around Filipinos’ cockroach-like…
Read More “Metro Manila a candidate for urban ‘catastrophic failure’ according to policy expert” »
Haring habagat – this is the name that some people on Facebook are throwing around to call the latest series of torrential rains that has besieged Metro Manila. Habagat refers to the southwest monsoon experienced by the Philippines every year. The total volume of rainfall from this incidence has seemingly exceeded that of Ondoy in…
According to Mark McDonald in a New York Times blog post, the recent floods that hit Metro Manila this week “seem to have caused little public anger over further municipal dysfunction in the densely populated capital of more than 10 million” and that, instead, “Filipinos demonstrated a remarkable civic spirit as they shared news of…
Read More “Metro Manila had long ago set itself up for its own destruction by flooding” »
Perhaps in this instance rather than refer to Philippine President Benigno Simeon ‘BS’ Aquino III by his catchy first two initials, he should instead be referred to as the ‘BT’ President — as in bad timing. Just two weeks before The Disaster that Could not be Named struck Manila and turned it into a real-life…
The latest deluge to hit Metro Manila once again demonstrates the sorry state of preparedness of state emergency services in the Philippines and the woefully insufficient flood control infrastructure of the country’s premier metropolis. Flooding brought about by days of southwest monsoon rains pounding the northern Philippine island of Luzon have once again paralysed vast…
The following is a re-post of an article I wrote for the now-defunct FilipinoVoices.com back in 2009 when Typhoon Ondoy wrought destruction across Metro Manila. The original Facebook archive can be found here. * * * In recent days we’ve been hearing and reading the word “Bayanihan” to the point of its being reduced to…
Read More “Stepping up to Manila storm flooding: Shotgun bayanihan!” »
“Blame it on Cain, Oh-oh, oh, please don’t blame it on me It’s nobody’s fault But it just seems to be his turn” Elvis Costello Just like when I talked to you folks about the Impeachment Trial of the Chief Justice, I hope you know by now that when I am not that…
Read More “Catholic Church May Be Flawed But Pinoy Flaws Are All Their Own” »