Lourd says we never learn, I say amen

While the onslaught of Ondoy may still be freshly etched in the memory of its victims, a seeming part two starts anew. This time, with harsher rainfall, flashfloods and greater destruction, to think that what has just transpired on the eve of August 6 was not a typhoon but mere heavy rains.

The intense downpour experienced in Metro Manila and its neighboring regions was equal to a month of rainfall, the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) said.

No one can stop the wrath of Mother Earth, but who says nobody can at least lessen its effects and damage? This is a rhetoric question.  

The government has allotted 13.7 billion pesos (if I am not mistaken) for the Reproductive Health (RH) bill, a chunk of money that I think, should have been allocated to more pressing concerns of the Philippines. No studies, after all, say that there is a direct relationship between population and poverty.

 “Who cares about a clean government, the respect for human rights, social justice and all that crap if everything can be wiped out by just one big-ass rainfall?” the Lourd de Veyra says in his blog.

“Calamities and harrowing incidents seem to simply skim off our cultural radar,” de Veyra says, “After a couple of months, they just float away into a distant haze. We're a land of typhoons, but being concerned with the weather doesn't really seem to be part of our culture.”

Fair point made once again, Mr. Lourd.

Days after some parts of the country have been hit by natural calamity, the sun will come out and it will be back to business as usual—heavy traffic and busy streets. The wastes that the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) has accumulated will once again, mount up. What is new?

We do not know how to heed to the signs of the times, thinking that we can always depend on our resiliency.

This is a wake-up call we have been snoozing time and again.