Killer Bs Must Go

Ilongga Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago is urging Metro Manila mayors to file damage suits against the owners of billboards that fell and killed people as Typhoon “Milenyo” battered Metro Manila last Thursday. Moreover, the senator said that under Article 701 of the Civil Code, mayors could order their city engineers to tear down billboards without judicial proceedings. “Under the Civil Code, these giant billboards are a nuisance because they injure and endanger the safety of others, offend the senses, and obstruct the free passage of public streets and highways,” she said (read more here).

Meanwhile, another storm is approaching the country according to Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz, chair of the National Disaster Coordinating Council. Weather bureau officials said the tropical depression, called Neneng, was about 2,000 km east of the Visayas and expected to enter the Philippine area of responsibility on Sunday (read more here). On a more positive note, Health Secretary Francisco Duque claimed that Typhoon Milenyo helped wipe out dengue by sweeping away the breeding grounds of mosquitoes (read here).

The Millenium Storm

Living up to its name, Typhoon Milenyo (international name: Xangsane) wreaked havoc and caused tremendous damage in the country yesterday (read more here). Billed as the strongest typhoon to hit Metro Manila in 11 years, Typhoon Milenyo caused the following:

• Suspension of classes in all levels in Metro Manila today and yesterday

• Suspension of work in all government offices (except those line agencies engaged in disaster rescue/emergency work) today and yesterday

• Killed at least 18 persons

• Blackouts

• Thousands of trees felled

• Billboards and lampposts torn down

• Trucks and cars overturned

• Flooding and landslides

• Thousands stranded

• Flights and sea travel canceled

• Overhead trains systems LRT and MRT stopped

• Trading on stock and currency markets suspended

In Western Visayas, Typhoon Milenyo killed 5 and displaced 31,000 persons. In Antique province, around 100 persons living near the rivers of Sitio Kamunsil, Brgy. San Antonio, Barbaza town were trapped inside their houses due to floods caused by heavy rains (read more here and here). Three people there were killed — a drunken man who fell into a river, a nine-year-old boy and an electrician — said Antique Provincial Legal Officer Eduardo Fortaleza (read here). Fortaleza said rescue workers already evacuated the 100 residents who were trapped in Barbaza yesterday.

In other news, 16 out of the 19 nursing school deans in Western Visayas oppose the President's order for a retake of the June 2006 Nursing Licensure Exam (NLE). According to Ma. Luisa Parreñas, President of the Association of Nursing Deans in Region 6, a retake would mean additional expenses amounting to P40,000 for each nursing student and that it would be unfair for those who did not cheat in the exams. About 42,000 students took the June NLE and around 17,000 passed. In Western Visayas 2,424 students took the exams and 1,256 passed, Lily Ann Baldago, Professional Regulation Commission regional director, said.

Semirara, The Other Oil Spill

Now that national media attention has been focused on the Petron Oil Spill and Malacañang has declared Guimaras as a calamity area, let me now direct attention to the other, "lesser-known" oil spill that happened only last December 18, 2005 off the coast of Semirara island in Antique province. Browsing over old news reports about that tragedy, one gets a sense that Filipinos are not so forward-looking and that we never seem to learn from the mistakes of the past.

In that incident, approximately 364,000 liters of bunker fuel seeped out of a Napocor barge (Power Barge 106) when it ran aground 200 meters off Semirara island. The oil spill affected some 230 hectares of shoreline, sandy and rocky beach, and mangroves in Antique (Read more here). Like in Guimaras, inclement weather was blamed for causing the accident. And as in Guimaras, local residents were provided with rubber gloves and paid to manually clean up the sludge. And as we have come to expect when disasters like these occur, political leaders tried to project some semblance of official action in Semirara - Congress conducted its usual investigations "in aid of legislation" (read this Senate Resolution) and there were calls to improve the National Oil Spill Contingency Plan (if ever there was one). I think it is safe to assume that nothing much came out of these purported "reforms" because another disastours oil spill happened a mere 8 months after Semirara.

The Semirara Oil Spill should have been the wake-up call, our clarion call to prevent similar disasters from happening in the future, much like the 1993 car bombing of the New York Twin Tower should have portended and alerted the Americans of the impending terrorist attack in 2001. I hate to think about it but if only our media had devoted more attention to the Semirara tragedy, the Petron Oil Spill in Guimaras would have never have happened. If only our government officials have acted and implemented measures to prevent similar "accidents" from happening, Guimaras would still be the pristine paradise that it was before the oil spill. Moreover, Semirara should have given government agencies like NDCC, Coast Guard and oil companies like Petron invaluable experience and practical knowledge on oil spill mitigation and disaster management techniques. Instead, when the Petron Oil Spill broke out, our government officials were so unprepared and obviously did not know how to deal with it. Our national disaster plans are a total disaster.

As a people, Filipinos do not know how to plan for the worst. We seldom prepare for contingencies: walang Plan B, Plan C, Plan D sa atin. In fact, we always tend to look at the bright side of things - I think sociologists call it the "bahala na" attitude. Filipinos are inherently optimistic and passionately temperamental - a trait we got from our Spanish forebears - which decidedly makes us more Latino than Asian in outlook.

Well, I guess you need to have a little "bahala na" attitude to survive in this blighted, disaster-prone country called the Philippines. This is probably the reason why, despite all the corruption, bad governance and meager economic opportunities in the country, various surveys show that Filipinos are among the happiest persons in the planet.

P15-million Graciano Lopez-Jaena Shrine to Rise in Iloilo City

Demy Sonza, former Iloilo Vice Governor and current President of the Graciano Lopez-Jaena Foundation (GLJF), announced that a memorial shrine will be erected in honor of the great Ilonggo orator and national hero. Estimated to cost around P15 million, the memorial shrine will be built on a 500-square-meter lot on Fajardo Street, Jaro, Iloilo City where the Lopez-Jaena ancestral house once stood.

In other news, Ilonggo Senator Franklin Drilon expressed alarm over the reported P17-billion unliquidated cash advances of various government offices. Drilon's sidekick, Iloilo Governor Niel Tupas, has threatened to arrest STL bet collectors (or cobradores) caught soliciting bets outside the territorial jurisdiction of Iloilo City. I guess Ilonggos from the interior towns would just have to go to Iloilo City to place their bets in STL. The City Government of Silay, in a press release, said that they have released a female green turtle.

Finally, the Bacolod City Prosecutor's Office has filed reckless imprudence charges against 19-year old Lorenzo Suatengco (who is a incumbent Provincial Board Member representing the youth sector in Negros Occidental) and 17-year old Marvin Ortiz. News reports say that the two were drag-racing their Honda Civic cars along the main streets of Bacolod when they figured in an accident that killed pedestrian Augusto de Leon, a public school teacher.