Typhoons have become more frequent and more destructive in recent years. Typhoon “Yolanda’’ that devastated the Visayas two years ago was a prime example. It was the strongest storm ever to hit land anywhere in the world.
A quick look at our country’s map will show that our country is one of the frontline states when it comes to typhoons. It is squarely located in the so-called typhoon belt. Yet, we seem to fall short every time we confront and mitigate the destructiveness of these natural calamities. Yes, we have learned a lot as a result of Yolanda. Information dissemination is now more intense and government authorities both local and national are more proactive in forcing residents along danger areas to evacuate to safer grounds. Weather prediction has also improved with better equipment.
But we need to do a lot more. Given the frequency and destruction caused by these natural calamities, our frontline agencies are totally lacking in equipment for them to do their work efficiently. Television footage showing the police and other agencies doing rescue work are poorly equipped but to their credit, they continue to work with what they have. There is a need to upgrade planning, preparations, efficiency and standards. It is also about time that the Aquino administration considered upgrading disaster and emergency work to a fully functioning department instead of a coordinating agency.
The slow-moving Typhoon “Lando’’ “once again brought a lot of destruction in its wake. This is in spite of ample warnings.’’ As I write this piece, 26 persons are known to have died; scores have been wounded. The rain Lando brought caused a lot of flooding in many towns in Central Luzon. A lot of infrastructures both public and private were damaged. Agriculture was also devastated. Up to this writing, the estimated damage caused by the typhoon is still being assessed by government authorities.
We here in Baguio have not been spared by Lando’s fury. At the height of the typhoon, many of the city roads were closed because of falling electrical posts and mature pine trees. Baguio is used to rain. After all, it is the 10th rainiest city in the world receiving about 169 inches of rain each year. But the rain that Typhoon Lando dumped into the city was more than a meter in the span of less than two days—and it has not yet stopped raining. About 330,000 people live in the city, not counting the nearby towns. Visitors who come to the city are by now familiar with the sight of several mountains with all the trees gone replaced by a multitude of squatter homes. Every now and then during a storm, it is not uncommon in some areas in these mountains to have landslides that would cause a lot of destruction to families living along the dangerous slopes as it happened a few years ago. Happily, there were no reports of deadly landslides this time. But with the many old pine trees uprooted by the typhoon, there are now less trees in the city. Already, there are home owners with workers cutting trees located close to their houses for fear that these trees would fall on their houses.
In the area where we live, two pine trees went down. One closing our main road and the other destroying the roof of a neighbor. There is one big tree only inches away from our house and we had to watch it for two days for signs that it might also go down but it held. Although we loathe cutting trees, we might have to get a permit to cut this tree and plant replacements where it is not dangerous.
Country Club also had some of its trees falling on cottages, so was the more-than-a-century-old campus of Brent School where quite a number of trees fell down. Clearing operations are now going on and the working crews of the electric cooperative are also going around trying to restore power throughout the city which they are doing much faster this time. During typhoons, people would go to the only mall in town to spend their time. But this typhoon forced the closure of the mall up to now because strong rains flooded a lot of the mall stores.
There are now just too many people living in Baguio nowadays. And it is not the only place whose environment is under pressure due to increasing population. The original plan was for a city of 25,000. Now, there are 330,000—and counting. People are simply allowed to build houses anywhere including areas that are not safe. This is similar to people in the lowlands being allowed to build houses along flood prone river banks.
Climate change is a phenomenon that has arrived and we are perhaps the first generation of humans that are experiencing the destructive effects of changing climate patterns. Although our country is in the forefront in the fight to mitigate climate change, so far, aside from the rhetoric, we have not seen concrete programs undertaken.
Yes, we read in the papers requests from some government agencies asking for funding for climate change mitigation projects but no tangible accomplishments. Baguio which prides itself as the premier vacation city has done everything to destroy that reputation by not planning and implementing a sustainable urban growth that would preserve the environment. From what I have been informed, Tagaytay is now a much better alternate destination to Baguio. And why not? Baguio is a prime example of how to destroy a beautiful city by bad governance and politics.