The wrath of God is upon us?

Typhoon “Pedring” (International code name NESAT) wasn’t even categorized as a super typhoon and watching the TV footages of the devastation of Metro Manila, especially in Roxas Blvd., gave many the impression that the wrath of God is upon us. Call it a coincidence that it was high tide last Tuesday and the storm surge inundated most of Roxas Blvd., including the US Embassy. I have never recalled of any flooding along that road. It just makes me wonder what if a super typhoon hit us?

 Anyway, listening to the radio commentaries about the devastation, a lot of our commentators believe that God is angry with the people of Metro Manila for he is allowing them to suffer such devastation. Call it a coincidence that Pedring came almost exactly two years to the day when Typhoon “Ondoy” inundated most of Metro Manila. If you think deeper about life, perhaps there is some truth about these calamities that God has allowed to happen to us Filipinos as a wake up call for all of us.

 In relation to this calamity, I got a text from a good friend asking, why is it that something terrible happens when Pres. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino, III goes to the US and promotes the Reproductive Health Bill? Looking back, it seems that this is God’s way of telling us Filipinos that he would like us Filipinos to reject the RH Bill as it leads to the killing of the unborn through abortifacient contraceptive drugs. It is not a coincidence that this storm came at the very week that the Senate is deliberating the issues on the RH Bill. Whether we like it or not, God is not asleep nor is he far and distant from us. He is around us and he is no longer happy with our current way of life.

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 Talking about our way of life… every Tom, Dick and Pundit is still talking about the ill-fated Road Revolution of environmental lawyer Antonio Oposa, which has caused huge disturbances on the daily life of Cebuanos, thus angering many, whom the organizers were trying to have on their side. The other day, a certain Vince Cinches, country coordinator of the environmental group 350.org, apologized to the people for the inconvenience that the public had to endure during their Road Revolution. Hmmm, don’t you think that the top man, Atty. Tony Oposa should be the one apologizing to the people? After all he is the brains behind this caper!

 As I said earlier, last Friday I got an email from Atty. Oposa asking me to join the Road Revolution, but I told him that I would be in Leyte for the weekend, but I asked him not to do a repeat of what they did in Osmeña Blvd. when traffic was disturbed so that a few bikers would have the whole road to themselves in Cebu’s main thoroughfare. Unfortunately, Tony Oposa did not listen to my advice and repeated the same mistake twice! Now it is the Cebuanos who are angry with him because he showed only indifference to the plight of the ordinary folk.

 At this point, I’m not accepting the apology of underlings like Vince Cinches. He may be the triggerman here, but the brains is still Tony Oposa, who has not yet apologized to his fellow Cebuanos. As I’ve said it before, I believe in the many advocacies of Tony Oposa and even interviewed him on my TV show a couple of times. But then we’re only human and maybe the international accolades he got for his environmental work must have gotten into his head and now he thinks he can move mountains and the people would bow before him. No Tony, it doesn’t work that way! You should show some kind of humility, that’s where the real power resides.

 Meanwhile, what’s happening to Cebu is symptomatic of the fundamental problems we are experiencing after many years of having a centralized system of governance. Atty. Oposa follows the dictum of former Bogota Mayor Enrique Peñalosa who quipped “Those who have less in wheels should have more in roads.” I fully subscribe to this dictum too. However, I’m realistic. Before we even do a Road Revolution, Tony Oposa and his company of environmentalist should first march to Congress and demand the revision of the National Building Code (NBC) where the rule on our sidewalks are only 2 meters wide. Rather than disturbing the daily lives of Cebuanos, Atty. Oposa should concentrate on Congress to revise the NBC.

 But even revising the NBC law means that the old Colon Street would be exempted from that revision because new laws can only be enforced on new construction. This is why I suggested that we should work now to create a new Cebu City somewhere either in between Cebu City or Balamban where the air is clean where we can start with a new slate, come up with a complete drainage system that works and put wide avenues and bike lanes for cyclists. These is called visioning and let’s work together on this rather than disturb the people’s daily lives, after all, we too have dreams for a better Cebu!

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