Life would be a lot better if we can just shoo away typhoons, plug the craters of volcanoes to prevent them from erupting, or hold the plates underneath us to keep them from shaking the ground and toppling buildings and ripping highways apart.
These terrifying and unwanted events and their terrible impact – thousands of lives lost, families displaced, and livelihood disrupted – are parts of the normal life in the Philippines, a country situated in the Pacific Ring of Fire and in the path of typhoons.
Climate change has only worsened our situation, with experts predicting more extreme weather disturbances as the new normal. A recent example of our vulnerability to weather’s whims was the visit of Pope Francis to Leyte last Saturday. He was scheduled to spend almost half a day in Tacloban and Palo to celebrate a Mass, meet with the victims of super-typhoon Yolanda, and lead other activities, but rain and strong winds from Mekkhala/Amang, the first tropical storm of 2015, forced him to fly back to Manila after less than an hour in Leyte.
The Pope, who told the Yolanda victims he knew what happened in November, 2013, even though he was in Rome, got a firsthand taste of what Filipinos, particularly those in Eastern Visayas, have to go through throughout their lives. Each year, 18 to 20 typhoons strike the country.
The Philippines is also located on the Pacific Ring of Fire, where most of the world’s volcanoes are located. Countries on the “ring” – Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand, United States, Canada, Chile, Mexico, Russia, and the Philippines – account for most of the earthquakes that happen in the world. The memories of the 2011 earthquake that triggered a tsunami, caused a nuclear meltdown and killed nearly 16,000 people are still fresh in the minds of the Japanese. The areas affected by the nuclear disaster remain ghost towns.
The magnitude-7.2 earthquake that hit Bohol on October 15, 2013, was weaker than the magnitude-9.0 that hit Japan, but it was one of the strongest recorded in the Philippines, leaving more than 200 people dead and destroying many historical churches.
The Philippines has more than 30 volcanoes, of which more than 20 are considered active, and a few, like Mayon and Taal, are permanently monitored. Mount Pinatubo, which for many centuries was just a part of the mountainous part of Zambales, erupted in 1991, and its effects were felt worldwide: The massive amount of gas and ash caused a temporary half-degree centigrade drop in global temperatures. The millions of tons of lahar spewed out of the volcano permanently changed the river system in parts of Central Luzon.
The US Embassy in Manila, recognizing the risks from natural calamities faced by Americans visiting or living in the Philippines, has published on its website information to help US citizens “prepare for any disaster that may occur.
The key word is “preparation.” In my view, successful preparation means a system backed up by the most accurate disaster information like weather forecasts, which in turn, can happen if we have the most advanced technology and equipment.
We have a pool of competent and well-trained weather forecasters, volcanologists, and other scientists (that is why some of them are pirated by foreign entities), but they need the best equipment and the latest technology to do their task well.
As a country prone to disasters, we should be the leader in weather or disaster forecasting and monitoring. The price for a nation ill-prepared for disasters is too stiff to pay: Thousands of lives lost, families displaced, vital facilities destroyed and economic growth disrupted.
We saw the terrible destruction wrought by super typhoon Yolanda in 2013. In 2014, timely preparations reduced the disastrous impact of typhoon Ruby, which was initially expected to become another super-typhoon.
Yet, we still count casualties and measure damage: Ruby left P5.09 billion worth of damage and 18 dead. Typhoon Seniang, a weak typhoon that hit the country in the last days of December, brought heavy rains and triggered floods, leaving 66 people dead and more than 100,000 families displaced.
These are continuing wake-up calls and reminders for the government to modernize our weather and disaster forecasting equipment and technology. Because of our situation, our objective and attitude should be that the Philippines should be the leader in this field.
In closing, I share the gladness of my countrymen and their deep appreciation for the visit of Pope Francis in the Philippines.