Barely a week after typhoon “Ondoy “ wrought havoc in Metro Manila and Luzon provinces with destructive flash floods, another big storm, “Pepeng “ (code named Parma) ravaged this time the Northern Luzon parts of the Philippines further adding more woes to the already reeling storm-weary nation.
Pepeng lingered in the Philippine area for at least 10 days, came back three times and brought with it massive flooding, landslides and more deaths. Latest figures as of press time said some 300 persons died in killer landslides that occurred in Benguet province, in Baguio city and La Trinidad mostly.
The only other typhoon that stayed much longest was storm Meding of 1986.
Images similar to Marikina flooding were once again played in Dagupan City and some other 30 more towns of Pangasinan, hardest hit by Pepeng as water was released from the nearby San Roque dam. Ilocos Sur and Norte, Cagayan, Nueva Ecija, Benguet province specially the highland city of Baguio city and vegetable bowl La Trinidad were not spared. The latter is the supplier of most vegetables sold in Metro Manila. Even its famous “ Strawberry fields “ were inundated by floodwaters.
For several days, these places remained isolated from the rest of Luzon as landslides after landslides blocked main highways.
The death toll in this latest disaster is expected to rise as more bodies are being recovered.
In the meantime, Ondoy’s record rainfall last September 26 caused at least P8 Billion in damages in areas of Marikina, Cainta, Taguig, Quezon City and other parts of Metro Manila.
“There is a mini-financial crisis in Metro Manila “said economic expert Solita Monsod as she said the loss of basic of properties like appliances, cars, furniture is causing a lot of household in Metro Manila to default on payments of these properties.
Its widely known that most of these properties have been acquired through instalment plans and the damages left by Ondoy had caused many families to be worrying where to get the next payments.
Some financial institutions have started giving moratoriums on such payments. Even government finance institutions like the GSIS and the SSS are giving out calamity loans and other financial packages to alleviate victims of the storm.
Damage to agriculture, meanwhile is pegged at billions of pesos as the floods destroyed crops. Most these crops like rice were about to be harvested when the twin typhoons hit the Philippines.
*****
MORE BAD NEWS; Coming close at the heels of this double whammy of disaster is the news that the proposed changes in the Live-In Caregiver program (LCP)and the Juana Tejada law was rejected by the Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) headed by Minister Jason Kenney.
Earlier, the House of Commons Standing committee on Citizenship and Immigration has shown its support to the proposed “Tejada Law “ by recommending its implementation in its report titled “ Temporary Foreign Workers and Non Status Workers “ released in May 2009. The proposal received support even from the Conservative Party but in a complete turnaround, Mister Kenny said no to the proposal reasoning that CIC “is developing options for other improvements to the LCP”.
In view of these developments, the Filipino community should now exercise its options, show solidarity and repudiate politicians who have betrayed the cause of caregivers. The community is now a potent force in Canadian politics and it’s about time that it flexes its muscles come election time. Its payback time so to speak !
******
I have a confession to make. I have another woman in my life besides my wife. And I want to wish her all my love on her
very important day, which is her birthday. not just another birthday but her 90th birth anniversary, October 21. Happy Birthday NANA. She is Mrs. Hilaria Figueroa Soriano, my mother and of my brothers Gus, Ed, Ike and sister Jocelyn.
From your daughters in law, Myrna, Nila,Thelma, son-in-law Jessie and Blanche and grandchildren and great grandchildren.
*****
QUICK RESPONSE: The Filipino-Canadian community has responded with swiftness in the Philippine disaster relief efforts as fundraisers from different organizations are mushrooming.
If this show of unity in coming to the aid for our “kababayans “ in times of calamity and disaster were to be transformed in such endeavor, I don’t see why we cannot do it in other undertakings.
Will it take more disasters and unfortunate events before we bond together as one?
As it is, despite all these, some organizations tend to become elitist and continue to pursue its own selfish agenda amid crisis like Ondoy and Pepeng. One of these organizations, because of its instant success, tend to believe in itself that it has the only solution to the problems of the poor. Or that it is the Be All and the End All to solve poverty.