Typhoon Yolanda

Our editors in The Freeman advised us for an early deadline to submit our columns so that they could put this newspaper to bed earlier so our employees can go home also earlier. So I'm writing this column in the morning while Cebu City isn't even getting any strong winds nor rain yet.

In the meantime, I've been browsing the social media net-works and Facebook and it seems everyone is getting ready for this "Big One" that is expected to hit us by dawn. I hope that there will be newsboys to sell this newspaper by Friday morning…otherwise what I'm writing here will be for naught because everyone might be too busy hunkering down from the effects of Typhoon Yolanda.

But one thing that I admire in our fellow Cebuanos…many of us still remember what happened to Cebu City when Super Typhoon "Ruping" (international code name "Mike") struck our beloved city like a nuclear bomb! That was almost exactly 23 years ago on Nov.10-14, 1990. That was truly an unforgettable event that has been etched in our memories, which can now be put to good use in preparing for this super typhoon.

Super Typhoon Ruping packed gale force winds of 220 kph and resulted in 748 deaths and some P10 billion in damage that affected more than a million families in Central Visayas. Cebu City was directly in Typhoon Ruping's path and we were awed by its eye as it passed over the city.

Incidentally if you've played golf at the Cebu Country Club lately, you will see that we've got many trees in that golf course. But when Super Typhoon Ruping struck us…more than 50 percent of those trees fell down. The Country Club doubled as a relief area for many members whose houses were destroyed by the typhoon. Yes, the country club doubled as our bathroom because of its generator because all the generators for sale in Metro Cebu were immediately bought by those who needed it.

Indeed one thing that Ruping brought down was 80 percent of all our power lines, which rendered most homes powerless and the Metropolitan Cebu Water District, could not pump our water from their water sources. The Visayan Electric Company had to seek assistance from as far away as Davao Light & Electric Company in Davao City…and yes, MCWD had to ration water for a month. So prepare your buckets of water if you haven't done this yet.

Typhoon Ruping was on top of the ten worst typhoons list that hit the Philippines. It just makes me wonder, where Super Typhoon "Yolanda" would be placed in that list. We can only sympathize with the earthquake victims in the island of Bohol who are now living in tents because their homes were destroyed. I just hope that they folded those tents because they are the easiest for the typhoon to blow away. At this point, I just hope that my faithful readers would have the time to read this column today because that's when Super Typhoon Yolanda is expected to arrive.

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As I'm writing this piece, all national TV networks are focused on the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee Hearing in the Senate headed by Sen. Teofisto Guingona Jr. As of this writing, the principal guest is no less than Janet Napoles Lim who is at the epicenter of this super political typhoon that has struck this nation when her P10-billion scam was exposed to the public.

But since I don't want to wait until the Senate Blue Ribbon committee is finished with its investigation, allow me to give my thoughts about this issue. First of all, I'm totally against the Senate Blue Ribbon committee for the simple reason that the principals involved in this billion-peso scandal are the members of Congress and the Philippine Senate. These accused senators and congressmen are part and parcel of the Philippine Patronage system, which can be summed up as: "You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours".

Second of all, Janet Lim Napoles is only being charged with illegal detention by BenHur Luy one of the whistleblowers in this case…and therefore, Janet can be advised by her lawyers from the Public Attorney's Office that she has the right to remain silent, lest her testimony which is under oath would be taken against her. Now why did her celebrity lawyer Lorna Kapunan leave her? We can only suspect that there could be a deal that was hatched when she went to Malacañang not to implicate the President.

Until and unless Kapunan comes out in public and explains to us why she left Janet Lim Napoles, everything else is specula-tion. But one fact remains, until now the case of Janet Lim Napoles is apparently taking its sweet time. If the Ampatuan massacre case will be celebrating its fourth anniversary, you can just imagine how long will the Napoles case would take…or if it would last at all because it involves the major players of the political elite that have controlled this nation since 1986.

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