THE VALUE OF LIFE: THE ‘ONDOY’ SAGA

written by Irenerose Susi

`For the last two weeks, we have been fed with news regarding Typhoon Ondoy, the weather disturbance which dumped a month’s rain in 12 hours.  Its unleashed fury was so powerful that it inundated Marikina, Rizal, and Cainta, all of mountainous areas.  By evening of that fateful day, news and even text messages, have reported that in so short time, the flood waters had reached neck deep.  The following days exposed the pitiful conditions of the victims.

 

What lessons do we learn out of this tragedy?

Firstly, the catastrophe revealed the resiliency of the Filipino in times of calamity. Our ability to cope in times of crises again was manifested. More so it showed how much we value life. The BAYANIHAN SPIRIT kept the light of hope burning. The pouring of donations, in cash and food, kept coming and these eased the pains of loss even for a while.

However, the catastrophe exposed the many faults we have been doing with impunity: destroy the environment! The mud that buried houses, villas, and mansions was not dumped by typhoon Ondoy. It cascaded from the mountains. Our mountains no longer have trees and roots to hold soil erosion, trees that were cut to pave the way for the construction of subdivisions, golf courses, and resorts. The landslides in Bano, Arayat buried houses with boulders. These are evidences that it is nature’s turn to fight back!

Another problem exposed is the tons and tons of garbage dumped in our esteros. We forgot that these are spillways which carry floodwaters back to the seas. This debris was the doing of the common people themselves. Throwing these into the esteros was the easiest way to dispose them. The garbage made the waterways shallow and narrower. When the rains came these choked, and floodwaters spilled into the communities. 

In few months, life will be normal again for all of us. But with the Filipino trait of forgetting easily, the tragedy is bound to happen again. The vicious cycle of offending the environment in aid for progress, tragedy, bayanihan, back to destroying the environment will haunt us unless we develop the discipline to take care of the environment. All these calamities are all man-made. The GREAT ARCHITECT has designed our place to live in perfectly. And if humans change these designs, nature will have all its right to fight back. If we are all able to learn how to take care of our environment...we all can say we value life.