Continuing Recovery

Amidst the commemoration of what was the aftermath of Typhoon Ondoy (International name Ketsana) and all the talk, the lip service being paid by politicians everywhere in Metro Manila, Rizal and Laguna, our family shared dinner while politely shrugging off what we preferred not to talk about over God's blessings yesterday evening. Me and my siblings were all too familiar with the routine and have heard it all promised only to be disappointed again and especially last year. Our first experience of floods was in the 1980's when the first of what came to be frequent floodings in our area was a chest high flood when I was in first or second year high school. These occurrences were blamed on creeks and streams covered by newer subdivisions in our area. Our village, after all, used to be surrounded by rice paddies that used to absorb the water. The excess were drained through a network of streams eventually leading to the Pasig River or to Laguna Bay. Many of these waterways were covered and were claimed to be replaced by canals and drainage systems constructed by developers. I just wonder if they really did their jobs by designing such drainage systems to be capable of carrying the waters from downpours they were supposed to have forecasted back then. But then I remember that environmental impact assessments weren't mandated back then and developers are not at all afraid of any sanctions or penalties for their poor designs. Come to think of it, that practice remains today unless there happen to be groups who would stand up for the communities affected.

The floodings stopped when the Manggahan Floodway was completed. Everyone rejoiced for the engineering solution, an ultimate one as proclaimed at the time, was realized. A few years later, however, the floods came back. These were not as serious as the previous ones and subsided faster than the floods in the 1980's. Still, there were the floods despite the floodway and they seem to be there to stay. And that was when it was finally decided to modify our house. I was in Japan by then (around 1997) and my brother was already a freshman in Los Banos. It was easier to have our house renovated in phases where our family didn't have to move out of the house entirely. The renovations was successful and our family got to sleep comfortably well. That is, until Ondoy came and shattered whatever sense of security we had for the last 10 years. Hopefully, Ondoy is indeed one of those once in 40 or 50 years type of events.

The evening ended on a happy note as is usual before we said goodbyes for the week and went back to our respective homes - my sister and her family now lives in Pasig with their two delightful children. We now live in Antipolo but not up in the mountain but in the plains below and adjacent to Cainta and Marikina. We all experienced Ondoy in what we now called home where we thought we'd be spared from the worst floods. We also hope that we won't experience something like it in the near future or ever.