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Drowned

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A photo essay

By Raïssa Robles

Metro Manila and surrounding provinces drowned today.

Government critics quickly seized this as a sign that God was angry at Philippine President Benigno Aquino and everyone who helped get the Reproductive Health bill onto the floor of Congress.

Dramatic shot of a Metro Manila skyline amid the rains by Adrian Dungo at http://adriandungo.weebly.com/

Consider this screed from a Facebook site devoted to slanging PNoy and praising the former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the former Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona and the former dictator Ferdinand Marcos. It used the same photo above and interpreted it this way:

Congresswoman Mitos Magsaysay, who has announced her intention to run for senator, joined in:

But the anti-RH backers were unable to explain –  if God was angry, why did He pour His wrath on that bastion of Catholic religious fervor  – the University of Santo Tomas?  Go figure.

Surging floods swept through the first floor of the UST hospital this morning –

UST grounds were transformed into a lake –

Then members of the pro-RH bloc shot back:

Others joined in saying government was not to blame for everything:

The volume of the rains had surpassed Ondoy:

It turned the North Luzon Expressway into a raging river –

North Luzon Expressway photo posted on Facebook by Chrischug

My hubby Alan, who was science and environment editor for The Manila Chronicle  newspaper for over eight years, summed up Metro Manila’s problem on his Facebook page:

  1. Where are the forested canopies and slopes that might absorb some of the rainfall? – Gone.
  2. Where are the channels and esteros that the rains could drain into? – Clogged.
  3. What about the Lake of Bay that would have acted as a basin to catch the overflow? – Silted over.
  4. And the city’s sewers? – Full of litter and garbage and inadequate in coverage
  5. The coordinated infrastructure development plans to make sure strategic and flood prone areas aren’t occupied? – Surely you jest
  6. The responsible local government officials working together to prevent or minimize catastrophes, to regulate the dumping of trash and industrial waste into waterways, control the building of fishpens and maintain flood contol projects? – Pardon?
  7. The citizens working to hold their officials responsible and doing what they can to avoid stressing the environment? – Zzzzz

You may commence drowning

Faced with such enormous problems and years of inaction and neglect by the government, Filipinos inevitably turned to humor:

What can I say?

Comments

  2. It’s more like, God saying, if you don’t take care of your population control, then I will.

    I gave you the power of free will, to think like I think, and to keep the planet, the animals, and all that I created safe, and this is how you destroy it by over population? The stewardship of the planet is in your hands, and this is what you do? You eat everything, you reproduce so frequently that you are devastating the planet I created, then if you do nothing to curb your reproduction, then I will do it for you.
    The tsunami was a warning, the floods are a warning, fire is a warning, each earthquake, volcanic eruption is a sign of my power. If you do not believe in me, and want to see the scientific explanation behind it. It is the same. It’s a warning that you through your own sexual appetites are destroying this planet, and I will not see that done. Hallowed be My name, I don’t think you know the meaning.

    RH bill or not, you seem to live worse than how I envisioned in my first edition of the Bible.

  3. By the way, nag skul bukol na naman si sotto. nangopya pala ng script sa isang blogger. Di naniniwala sa sinasabi ng doctor na safe ang pills pero bilib na bilib sa isang blogger na di naman doctor… tanga to the max talaga

  4. KATAKAWAN BAKA MAGING BULA
    GREED TURNS TO BUBBLE
    ————-
    Ayala to turn FTI property into new business district
    Agence France-Presse

    Posted at 08/14/2012 6:58 PM | Updated as of 08/14/2012 7:11 PM
    MANILA – The real estate arm of Philippine conglomerate Ayala Corp. said Tuesday it planned to create another major business district in Manila after casting the highest bid for a government property.
    Ayala Land offered P24.33 billion ($579 million), more than two other real estate firms, for the Food Terminal industrial estate, the company and government officials said.

    The 74-hectare (183-acre) property is located near major government highways and will become “the southern gateway” to Manila, Ayala Land said.”
    —————
    Yung sobrang katakawan ng mga CEO at bank owners sa mundo naging bula pumutok naging economic crisis. Pati sa mayamang bansa, Milyon nawalan ng trabaho. Ang ekonomiya sa Metro Manila nakalutang sa takaw sa komersiyo ng mga taipan.

    Bakit hindi magpatayo pagawaan ng sari-saring produkto mula kotse, damit, kagamitan electronic at elecktricidad at hindi puro restoran ang tinda tuloy-tuloy sa kubeta? Taga tinda at taga bili ng mga produktong galling tsina, Thailand at Indonesia na lang ba ang kapalaran ng Filipino? Ang gobierno parang si Paquiao panay shadow boxing sa dilim kaya ang anino impossibleng tamaan.
    TIGILAN ANG KATAKAWAN SA NEGOSYO, MAGTAYO NG MGA PABRIKA.

  5. After just more than 2 years, Pres Aquino is NOW beginning to realize, how it is to wake up on top of Smoky Mountain. Savants and pundits, those in media and governance SAY give em, the whole works to local officials. I said here Devolving powers and Decentralizing activities to local govt units is not easy; like aspirin and noodle to take care of aches and hunger. Local Autonomy Could backfire.

    IT was PAGASA’s allowances yesterday, today it’s the nation’s capital MANILA that is BROKE. .
    NOW READ ON:

    http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/250013/manila-deep-in-debt-coa
    Manila deep in debt –COA
    By Gil C. Cabacungan

    Philippine Daily Inquirer 12:23 am | Wednesday, August 15th, 2012 Share on facebook_likeShare
    As if his problems with mounting garbage caused by the recent typhoon were not enough, Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim may find his city in a financial bind after the Commission on Audit (COA) reported the other day that the local government unit does not have enough cash to pay its debts caused by a bloated workforce.

    • In the latest report uploaded on its website, the COA said the Manila city government has unpaid debts of P3.553 billion, or more than three times its cash holdings of P1.006 billion.
      State auditors said Manila’s payroll exceeded the mandatory spending limit of 45 percent of the total annual income from regular sources realized in the preceding fiscal year.

      The COA estimated that Manila should have forked out only P2.458 billion in 2011 based on its P5. 462 billion income in 2010. But the city actually shelled out P3.424 billion in salaries and retirement benefits, on top of the P260.95 million in “financial assistance” it gave to its officials and employees.

      The COA said the huge sums were erroneously recorded under the maintenance and other operating expenses account, when they should have been classified under personal services.

      Apart from its tax dues to the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the COA said the city did not remit employee contributions to the Government Service Insurance System, Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-Ibig) and Philippine Health Insurance Corp (Philhealth).

      • There were also delays in the turnover of the revenue share of the city’s 896 barangays worth P511.391 million, hampering the delivery of basic services and the implementation of development projects and programs of the city, it added.

        The COA questioned the decisions of city officials not only in collecting penalties, surcharges and interest from 6,126 delinquent tax payers, but also in giving them P40.812 million in tax discounts without any legal basis, further reducing the city’s revenues.

        “The City Treasurer gave the assurance that the tax discounts granted without legal basis shall be included in the computation of the business taxes, fees and charges due the concerned taxpayers in the succeeding year,” said the COA.

        Apart from maintaining a shaky balance sheet, the COA also questioned Manila’s accounting policies.
        It said an annual physical count of Manila’s property, plant and equipment yielded only an inventory worth P6.718 billion, or P7.060 billion of its supposed total asset holding, with an acquisition cost of P13.778 billion.
        ===============
        If you have reached this far . . . . Manila is our capital city, the poorer and poorest city may not be in such deep trouble. The country fell into a shallow quicksand, its feet already touched bottom, but the surface is at eye level. Can Pres Aquino pull the country out? Not in just the remaining four years.

  6. ang mga filipino saka lang naman umaaksyon kapag may problema.. in short reactive. let us all be proactive… di na ba tayo na22 sa ondoy.. hoy gising!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  7. The recent calamity has nothing to do with the RH Bill. It is not in any form of punishment but is simply a natural calamity that has been happening even during the ancient times. People died and suffered as a result of the calamity not because God wanted to punish anybody. People died and suffered due to their own stupidity or stubbornness for not getting out of harms way or for not getting prepared, not because God is playing god.

    I have been told by our parish priest since I was a child that God is a loving father and that His love for his children is unconditional. I find this difficult to reconcile with the CBCP’s and other anti-rh’ position that what has just happened is a wrath of God. How should we also refer to those people who died/suffered as a result of the calamity but has nothing to do with the bill? Collateral damage? Because God is so insecure and that desperate to catch the attention of Pnoy and the congressmen who are in favor of the bill, He was that willing to let some people suffer/die?