Ondoy

It is utterly illogical to wholly attribute Metro Manila’s flooding as the result of a failure on the government’s part. We could have had the most honest, proactive, altruistic government in the world and it would not have kept, say, Aling Loring’s 14-inch TV in Marikina from being swallowed by neck-deep water. There exists such a term in legal books as “Act of God”, wherein nobody can be held liable if it happens to cause damage to one’s person. Even the Pope, were he in Pasig at the time typhoon Ondoy was licking the Philippines with its wet, wet toungue, would have been just as powerless to stop the rain from coming down (and coming down, and coming down and coming...). So where exactly would the government have failed? Sure, one could argue that the government was not doing enough to ensure proper drainage and clear waterways in and around Metro Manila. But then again, is it right for the blame to fall solely on the governments shouldert? The infrastructure is there, only we chose to hide it amidst garbage, ramshackle housing, and all manner of human detritus. And even after we could not see the river under the plastic and styrofoam anymore, we still piled it on, decades worth of it. The water drainage problem has been around for a long, long time. Long enough that the deluge that was could have been kept to a manageable magnitude. The problem has been underfoot, figuratively and literally, for several incarnations of our government. Like frogs in water slowly heated to boiling, we never truly appreciated the gravity of the situation until our skin started peeling off, or in this case, our furniture started to float away.
The job of the government now is to alleviate and mitigate the effects of such and unpreventable occurence. And on that job I think the government is doing a stand-up job. It is the first time in a long time I have seen the government do something out of genuine concern and altruism for the plight of the downtrodden and the less fortunate, the devestated, already impoverished masses, the demographic so blatantly put on a pedestal by many a politician’s platform come election time. It is refreshing. And it is heartening to see the Filipino people actually exercising the “Bayanihan spirit”, a word often misused and taken advantage of. It gives me hope for the Philippines yet. It is a shame that it takes an Ondoy to show us this side of the government, and ultimately, this side of our selves.
Still, there will be those who blame the government. It is part of a government official’s job description, getting paid to be blamed. And, after all, to point an accusing finger is, like Ondoy, an act of nature. Human nature, that is.