Typhoon Ulysses (international Vamco), the 21st to hit the Philippines this week, has left a still uncountable damage in infrastructure and agricultural produce—well on the heels of Typhoon Rolly (Goni), the strongest, with 215 kph sustained winds and gusts up to 265 kph, which brought violent winds and strong rains.
Rolly, truth be told, is the most powerful storm recorded worldwide this year, which made landfall in the Philippines as the predominantly Catholic country of 110 million celebrated All Souls Day virtually because of the pandemic.
But Ulysses had a different beat as it hit the national capital region and surrounding provinces, not the least the always storm-battered Bicol Peninsula and the Sierra Madre-shielded Cagayan Valley, which this week remained under water, causing damage to its agricultural farms.
Ulysses’ arrival—eight less than last year's 29 named storms including 17 typhoons and five super typhoons —brought memories of Yolanda, the second deadliest to jab the Philippines with 6,300 deaths from November 7 to 8 in 2013, as it crashed against and uprooted some hardwood in the capital and elsewhere.
The Philippines is prone to tropical cyclones due to its geographical location which generally induces heavy rains and flooding of large areas and also strong winds which result in heavy casualties to human life and destruction to crops and properties.
The loss and devastation we saw in this most recent disaster are as heartbreaking as ever.
The so-called resilience of Filipinos has been glorified far too many times. In the beginning, it was a testament to our collective strength and ability to transcend any hardship. In recent years, however, the word has assumed a fatalistic hue, because it laid down the expectation that we should accept whatever fate befalls us even if it is due to the sheer greed, ineptitude, apathy, and lack of foresight of our leaders.
There is no doubt that we will rebuild again. We will be able to do so not because we have calmly resigned ourselves to the situation—that we are a country frequently visited by disaster. It will instead be because we have taken a more active role in charting our future by active participation and the election of better officials: Those visibly working in times of tragedy, who craft strategies to mitigate the impact of disasters on communities, and who are accountable for their actions while in office.