What five months!

Few days ago, I exchanged text messages with The Freeman’s opinion editor. I will just address him as Sir Bryan and not with his full name because I have not previously asked his permission to print his full name here. Our conversation (my younger friends use the word CONVO) somehow focused on my old age. Because I am in my sunset years, there are many things the younger generation uses which I do not know anything about. Sir Bryan, in one message, said something like this: “I know how to google. Do you?”

I did not answer Sir Bryan right away because I was not sure his question was grammatically correct. To google? I pressed the key SAFARI on my cellphone and asked if his statement was written in correct grammar. The SAFARI replied that “to google" as a verb, has been widely accepted in English since 2006”. Yes, Sir Bryan, to press SAFARI is my way “to google”. That is what I know.

When I asked SAFARI a question on weather, it sent this information. “The last major, destructive heavy rain event in Cebu City occurred on November 4, 2025, brought by Typhoon Tino (Kalmaegi), which caused severe flooding, overflowing rivers, and widespread infrastructure damage.” Using the data supplied by SAFARI, I could count 5 months, from December 2025 to April 2026, when we had no such rainfall as to cause floods in our city.

Again, when I pressed the SAFARI key, I got an eye brow raising report, also five months ago, of Rainier Allan Ronda. “Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon said the flooding from Typhoon Tino was evidence of poor planning and limited and ill-advised dike and revetment construction projects done in previous years, which failed to control runoff into Cebu’s rivers. xx Definitely, there were deficiencies, because planning was lacking,” Reporter Ronda translated Dizon’s Tagalog statement “xxx that effective flood control must include managing upstream flows before water surges into the major rivers in Cebu City, namely the Mananga and Butuanon rivers: (and) “That’s what’s missing.”

Thinking about these past five months, I grapple with two things. The first is a so glaring lack clear information that my inquisitive mind becomes suspicious. Behind the motherhood statements of Secretary Dizon, I, a Cebu City resident, have not heard details on the “flood control project” scandal in our city. What are these scandalous projects? Where were they supposedly implemented? Who were liable for the reported corruption which Secretary Dizon alluded to? Were cases already filed in court? Against whom? The lid of information is obviously clamped! We are made totally uninformed. Why? Or should the question be: is there anyone suppressing the real story, the truth, from being known? It is rather unfortunate that the SAFARI could not even supply me the answers.

The second thing is visible. There had been no heavy rains in the last five months. We have been experiencing dry spell. After the floods brought by Typhoon Tino, our natural waterways have reduced their volume. To a trickle, in some areas. These months could have been ideal period to dredge our rivers, restore, if not repair the banks, remove the heavy and hardened silt and scoop out whatever could block the flow of water. What I am seeing is the failure of the city to implement the kind of needed flood control project which it can afford and not the ones in the corrupt nature within Secretary Dizon’s periphery. That is right, Sir Bryan, even after I pressed the SAFARI key, no such information seems to be available. I hope somebody can supply me the data I need to know.