Pepeng Overshot Manila!

How anti-climactic!

On the bright side, everyone was prepared for the worst this time. Also, the volunteers (and donors) were finally able to take a breath, have that missed meal, take a nap and generally Thank God for all His blessings.

In the span of one week, a floundering third-world country on the brink of total chaos was transformed into a family doing everything in their power to help each other, from buying supplies for donation, to sending cash, to praying. Even with the reports that several politicians and government officials tried to turn the calamity into an electioneering campaign, the private citizens still won in the end.

We're Proud of You, Filipino! Keep it up!

Aid for Typhoon Ondoy Victims

Sometime yesterday, while watching videos of the aftermath of Typhoon Ondoy and constantly monitoring the weather report for the "expected" two low pressure areas coming, I came to the same realization hundreds have also arrived at. If those two hit Manila with the same force as Ondoy, what will happen to the evacuation centers, the volunteers, the depleting supplies, the available drinking water and the other half of the population who were not directly affected the first time? Do you think this crisis will end after a few days, weeks or months? No! It will take years for those displaced, or whose businesses were grounded (literally with mud) to recover. The enormity of the whole chaotic mess just hit me that I was suddenly spurred into action as soon as I woke this morning. Even without discussing this first with my husband or my mom, I decided to volunteer as well.

Here in the Bukid, we may feel we are separate and this does not concern us, so let's stop a moment and think about who these people are. Every one of us has a family member, a cousin, a friend, a colleague, a neighbor, a student, a child, a parent, a grandparent, an acquaintance... in Manila. Don't you think we should at least do SOMETHING simply because we know them? We may be far from where the action is, but there is something we can do. We can help in any way we can. We can send money. We can send medicines. We can pray.

My brother, JOEY CUERDO, is involved with the relief operations in Quezon City. His house in Marikina was one of those which collected water up to a certain height, but fortunately, his family did not have to evacuate. Just had to do some major cleaning.

To help in his efforts, I am volunteering my house as a receiving point for donations in kind: medicines, blankets, towels, personal items, grocery items, clothing, baby necessities, shoes, slippers, soap, shampoo, milk, chocolate powder, sugar... anything that can be used / eaten immediately. LBC, 2GO and Negros Navigation have already promised to send these packages for FREE.

My house is located at : CUERDO's COMPOUND, Purok Menzi, Damilag, Manolo Fortich (across from Menzi Orchard Residences). You can contact me at (0920) 9600 192.

We are also accepting donations in cash via bank deposit:

BDO (Lapasan Branch, CDO)

Account #: 3160-0412-76

Account Name: REGINA C. AMADOR (this is a company account, and funds will automatically be transferred to my brother)

Let us join together in this effort. These are our brothers and sisters crying for help! You may not know them, but you never know who they know.

p.s. Those reading this blog, I would like to request that you forward this message to everyone, who might want to donate, or who might know someone who would like to donate, or if they don't, to just forward it on until the message has been spread. Regaining a life is more difficult that building one. We must help them!

Thank you and God Bless Us All!

Bukidlife Safe from Flooding

This is one of the incidences where I'm thankful to be living in the Bukid.

I'm taking a break from my Koronadal trip blog to comment on the drama of what just happened in Manila last weekend.

It was a rainy Saturday morning here in Northern Mindanao and I was attending a Leadership Seminar in Midway Resort, at Initao, Misamis Oriental. I was taking hourly videos of the growing waves and kept remembering my brother, Joey, who is a surfing enthusiast. He would have loved these waves, I thought, and decided to send him a text. Maybe he would add this to his list of surfing destinations next time around.

His reply brought a shock: Ok, dangerous flood in marikina now. This was at 1:21 pm, Saturday, September 26.

Then later that night, my friend, Myra, who works in Manila City but goes home to Los Banos texted that she had been stranded at the bus terminal in shin-deep water since 2 pm and had only reached her home at 12 midnight. Her clothes still had not dried even after traveling for over 3 hours.

True enough, come Sunday, the internet was deluged with videos and pictures of the flood that, it seemed, had only suddenly appeared the day before. According to a batchmate who had been attending a Family Day in Marikina, water rose 4 feet in just one hour.

As shocking as the news was, what was more urgent in my mind was: WHY? Then again, I asked the very same question when the same thing happened (flash flood) here in Cagayan de Oro City last January 2009. It should actually not have occurred to me to ask it, but I did. Why?

Not so much "why it flooded" but "why so much water in such a short time"??? Normally, when it rains in Manila, there is a certain amount of water flowing in the streets but it usually drains out quickly into the rivers and drains. This time, it was like everything filled up at the same time, leaving no room for outflows. Even the underpasses in Makati were filled to the brim. How could that have happened? And no one could have done anything because it's like you just turned around and water was everywhere.

People on the news last night were blaming rescuers for being too slow in their reactions to save those trapped. My reaction was how could they have moved faster when their own families were in danger? Bayani Fernando could not save his own daughter (she is alive, by the way) who was working in another barangay of Marikina because he was busy with the efforts within his vicinity. Christine Reyes, an actress, and her family had to climb up on the roof of her house and wait for rescue in the cold and unending rain. They were rescued 12 hours later by no less than another celebrity in the person of Richard Gutierrez.

I ask again. Why? What could have been done to possibly prevent this tragedy? Is it because Marikina is situated beside a major riverway that water easily spilled over? Is it because most of the drains in Metro Manila are so plugged up with garbage that water cannot find its way out anymore? Is it because of illegal logging that all the water from the mountains just poured out into Manila?

I have another theory to add: Some of you might not be aware that there was a 6.1 earthquake that shook the country on the evening of September 18, its epicenter estimated to be at Mindoro Island. For some reason it was only felt in the western parts of the country, namely Palawan, Western Mindanao and South Central Mindanao, where I was at the time. Knowing that there is a major faultline in Marikina, could this have had something to do with the unprecedented rise in floodwater?

I pray for the safety of my relatives and friends who still are unaccounted for in Marikina, Antipolo and Cainta: Betsy and Andrew Aytin, with their son, Diklap, who live somewhere in Bayan, Marikina; the Banzon Family, whose house is located right inside the Marikina Public Market; Sharon (Cuerdo) Marcelo and family, who live in Antipolo; Luchi (Cuerdo) Cirujales and family, who live in Antipolo; the families of Dani and Del Tan, from the main town of Antipolo; the family of Tita Sol (who works for my husband's brother in Kuwait), from Town and Country Village in Cainta; the family of Aileen Mendoza, from SSS Village, Marikina; and those still trapped on the roofs of buildings and those who have been rescued but have nowhere to go home to. May God have mercy on you!