For those of us who live in a country with an average of 19-20 typhoons a year, the news of an upcoming tropical storm is often greeted with resigned casualness. First, it can’t be helped that we’re in the typhoon path and second, there have been many occasions when the alarm bells sounded by PAG-ASA, the country’s weather bureau, were a dud. That was how I regarded the news of Typhoon Ondoy’s (international code name ‘Ketsana’) impending arrival last week. We had already been hit by a spate of typhoons in recent months so I figured, what difference would another one make? If it was stronger than the last, we would always survive it – if at all, it would still be nothing compared to Typhoon Arroyo (and there’s a whole lot of them!) that has engulfed this country in the last six, or should I say, nine years.
A day before Ondoy’s projected landfall, I left for Hong Kong with my colleague, Mara, to conduct a series of interviews and focus group discussions with Filipino domestic workers on their access to SRH services (which will be another blog). I knew that Ondoy was expected to hit land on Saturday, September 26, but the sunny/humid weather in Hong Kong soon made me forget about it. That was until mid-afternoon, when I started receiving text messages from friends, asking how I was (and yes, how my owls were doing), in the midst of the storm. I started feeling knotty in my insides. It is not a good feeling when something happens back home and you’re far away and unable to do anything immediate. And because I travel a lot for work, it happens to me all the time. One time, I left the country for a meeting in Bangkok. When I came back a few days later, a greedy gnome had already replaced Erap as the president.
When the messages of concern kept pouring in by mid-afternoon, I started to get seriously worried. I called my neighbor/caretaker and asked her whether there was flooding in our area. She said it was just ankle deep, but Kamias, which was about two-three blocks from our street, was already waist-deep in water.
So I did the next most logical thing. I hooked up the wireless internet connection (hurray for free hotel wifi) and combed the Philippine news websites for the latest news. Then, I logged on to my Facebook account to check on wall posts from friends. First came the status updates about the incessant rains and the unusual flooding in certain areas. Facebook and Youtube became virtual newsrooms, with people posting advisories, uploading photos and videos of the typhoon. In just six hours of incessant rain, the actual horror of Ondoy sunk in: people wading through waist/neck-deep waters; former alleys and roads transformed into waterways; dead bodies being carried in makeshift stretchers; vehicles being tossed and swept away in the mud, houses submerged in 15 feet of water; people stranded on their rooftops, waiting to be rescued. The entire metropolis became waterworld, only it was real and colossally more disastrous than Kevin Costner’s bomb of a movie.
Quezon City, where I lived, was heavily affected, but the situation was worse in low-lying places like Marikina, Cainta, Angono, Taguig and Montalban. I didn’t see that many postings about the City of Manila, perhaps because there’s nothing new about it getting flooded.
From delivering the latest news updates, complete with side (or should I say, snide) comments, Facebook transformed into an Emergency response network. People posted information on rescue efforts: who to call for what, where to go, what to do. Messages asking for assistance and help were being posted and reposted and reposted, ad infinitum. Did these reach the intended recipient? We didn’t/wouldn’t know. As the hours passed, the list of institutions doing rescue operations grew longer and longer, until somebody had a stroke of brilliance and made an algorithm out of it. Calls for donations and monetary pledges to various organizations were posted: even someone who was celebrating a birthday requested for donations instead of gifts.
The following day, Facebook (and Twitter) had become the nerve center for anything and everything related to Ondoy. Rescue operations were continuing but relief operations predominated the status updates of almost everyone. Calls for relief goods such as cooked rice, cooked eggs, water, blankets, medicine, and clothes started pouring in. And in keeping with the times, the need for more environmentally-friendly packaging of the relief goods was also being problematized. Suggestions ranging from banana leaves to brown paper bags, to using plastic bags (with an instruction to re-use and recycle) were made. The call for volunteers was also ringing incessantly – although one can glean the early disorganization (with people coming forward to donate or volunteer) but found the drop-off centers empty and without people.
By afternoon of Sunday, Facebook became the editorial and opinion page. People were registering their disbelief and shock, echoing their fears, airing their disappointment and grief and venting their rage --- in various degrees and proportions. There were calls for better governance and leadership; better urban planning; improvement of sanitation; garbage disposal and sewage systems; and, better budgeting and spending -- since it was reported that the President had utilized a chunk of the emergency funds to finance her foreign trips (beginning 2007, she was spending US$ 255,000+ per day). Photos of food packs bearing the name of Manny Villar, a presidential aspirant, were condemned as crass opportunism at a time of disaster. Frequent references to the presidential dinners in New York, which cost thousands of dollars, resurfaced. Even a photo of the presidential son buying liquor (though unconfirmed if it was done during the typhoon aftermath) circulated. And then, the rumor mill emerged – the opening of a certain dam, which caused massive flooding; the crocodiles that escaped from a Nature Park (don’t we already have a lot of them in Congress?); and the supposed hate message from a Dubai-based OFW (saying the people deserved the disaster because they were ‘sinners’). The latter has since issued an official statement about her account purportedly being hacked. Boy, someone must have been pretty pissed off at her to do such a thing.
By evening, Facebook evolved into the sympathy and prayer page. Friends offered prayers and messages of support, hope and encouragement to other friends who suffered from the typhoon, mainly from damaged/lost property. Indeed, many were lucky to be alive, but the prospect of starting over, of reconstructing their lives, had yet to begin. Updates on clean-up operations, again complete with photos and videos, were being posted. Relief operations were continuing, especially for areas not yet reached by previous rescue and relief efforts. There were calls for delivery trucks; compressor pumps (to siphon off floodwaters which have not receded); cleaning equipment; more food; more water; medicines and yes, even breastmilk.
The updates also carried news about celebrities who had to be ferried out from their homes the height of the typhoon; of rescue efforts using jet skis, speedboats and yes, even a surfboard; of politicians and local officials halting relief efforts because they were waiting for media coverage; and the record attendance of the majority Congressmen and women (including the president’s son) to dismiss the impeachment complaint against the Ombudsman (while everyone else was busy with relief operations). So the rumor was true after all, the crocs were in Congress!
And as Pinoy as we could get, some postings started injecting humor and a slice of “Pinoy” life. Lagusnilad, the underpass in Quiapo, Manila, became a virtual swimming pool, with children using electric posts as diving boards. A group of men posted a video in Youtube to show how flooded their street was – they were swimming their way through the neighborhood, and joking how the street had transformed into the sea.
Yesterday, a virtual candle was lit on people’s profiles, in memory of those who perished. Status updates extolled the so-called “bayanihan” spirit and heroism of the Filipino, including Muelmar Magallanes, an 18-year old construction worker who was swept away by floodwaters after bringing 30 people to safety. Links to foreign and local news articles, commentaries, weather updates, and political analysis about why Ondoy happened were being shared. There too, were the more “forward looking” propositions: the need for better disaster preparedness and management; the need for individual responses to climate change; the call for better governance and leadership. Relief ops were getting more organized --- and it was truly awe-inspiring to read that the spirit of giving is very much alive.
It is now thursday (five days after the storm), and there are frantic updates and warnings of an upcoming supertyphoon Pepeng (codename Parma). I hope it doesn’t give me a wet and windy welcome when I come home to Manila on Friday evening, but that seems to be the target landfall.
Indeed, the Philippines will survive this crisis (as it has and does, time and time again), even without or despite this government. Call it resilience, call it survival instincts, call it unwavering faith, call it sheer doggedness. As the song Noypi goes, “Pinoy ako, buo aking loob, may agimat ang dugo ko.” And how can we not survive, with Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, SMS and blogs? Come hell or high water, we shall rise above it all.
