Lessons from the aftermath

The heavy traffic along EDSA is a warm welcome that things are going back to normal. Our newspaper subsciption is back. The laundromat is open.

And we are back to work. The students are back in school. And we’re in for a long break again. Yes, we deserve it — the monsoon rains did dampen our spirits.

After this long break, most of you are going out of town. We can finally kiss the past goodbye and move on.

But I couldn’t quite. 

For the past weeks, I had been shuttling from Quezon City to different flooded areas across Luzon to distribute relief goods coursed through ABS-CBN’s Sagip Kapamilya. One minute I was walking in water, and next, I was back to dry land.  

Most of the areas were just a few hours away from Metro Manila, and yet, the circumstances, opposites.

Last Sunday was a full day of relief work in Minalin, Pampanga, but I rushed back home in Makati to catch the evening Mass. I still haven’t gone to the shower to freshen up, and after changing to fresh clothes, it was awkward stepping into dry land of Greenbelt Chapel. Most of the people were strolling in the area.

In Minalin, people were living amidst the floods, while in Makati, people didn’t feel the need for a jacket anymore. We had dry happy feet.

The weather was nice and cozy but my thoughts on the flood areas lingered.

Minalin is just an hour and a half away from Manila. During our visit, the roads to the municipality were still impassable to light vehicles due to the floods. 

We had to leave our Sagip Kapamilya truck at the bridge in Sto. Tomas, Pampanga and transfer our relief goods in fishing vessels.

Lately, the boats have been used to transport flood victims instead for fishing. Minalin is one of the biggest producers of tilapia and shrimp, but the flood waters caused the fish pens to overflow. The last time a tragedy of this magnitude hit this place was in 1995, the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo. Residents of Pampanga and other parts of Central Luzon put the blame on the ruined dike in Sto. Tomas.

With no livelihood, families had no food on the table and relief goods were their only means of survival.

We set the relief goods on a small area of dry land by the river. The entire village was still flooded about two feet deep.

Like bread thrown into water in a pool of fish, the residents in their bancas charged to where we were when they learned about our coming. Soon enough we were surrounded by bancas everywhere.

Among the residents in the bancas were a lady and her three daughters. They were cramped in their small banca. Water containers occupied most of the space. The family had just come from the nearest baranggay to buy potable water. It was 30 minutes away. They were surrounded by water but not suitable for drinking. “We like it when it rains because we can drink the rainwater, but we cannot drink the flood,” says a woman who had blisters and sores in between her toes because of weeks of walking in water. It’s a choice of infection or dehydration.

Meantime, Victoria, Laguna, located south of Metro Manila, is still flooded. When the water of Laguna de Bay started rising due to the recent monsoon rains, residents of Brgy. Pagalangan sought refuge in a small area which was not under water. They saved what they could, taking with them their most valuable possession — livestock.

If I were to envision Noah’s Ark during the Great Flood, perhaps this is how it was: Goats, pigs and ducks living just beside the tents of the evacuees. “You get used to the smell of the animals,” said an old man.

But besides the smell of refuse of the animals, Laguna de Bay had a foul odor. It was smell of stagnant water and dead organisms in it. It’s something like the smell of water in vase, with rotten flowers. I dared not get into the water. I was told that there were snakes, too.

Lola Lorenza recalls that the problem of the polluted and alarming levels of Laguna Lake has been around for ages. But the recent flooding “was the worst,” she says, with the water lilies from the Laguna de Bay taking over her rice field. I learned from the mayor of Victoria that 70 percent of the rice fields in their place were affected by the flooding. 

Reports say that the flood may last for two to three months due to several factors: A heavily silted outlet of water to Napindan Channel going to Pasig River to Manila Bay and Laguna de Bay is also lower than sea level, explains science expert, Prof. Ed Rosales of Umagang Kay Ganda.

The only natural remedy for the waters to subside is a bright and sunny day, “Evaporation of water is the only natural way to lessen the water... unless they pump it out,” he says. 

I’ve heard this before and I’m hearing it again — dredging, relocation of illegal settlers, dikes and billions of investments taking years to build. I’m hoping that this administration has the political will for that, if not, we may have to get some pointers from those still in flooded areas for maybe sooner than later we will be on the same boat. 

(E-mail me at [email protected].)