Hello world:)
FROM Emilia Mikaela R. Prilles. All of 7.1 lbs. Newest member of the Prilleses of Pacol.
26 December 2006
22 December 2006
What?!? Am funny?:)
IF YOU don't think so, which I share by the way, read this. Courtesy of Benito Vergara aka Bulletproof Vest.
More...19 December 2006
Haayy! 'twas finally over
MY ROLE as a stage father-cum-designated driver, that is. I was meant to post this one last Saturday evening before we packed for home but the free WiFi connection at Avenue Square was not cooperating. Most probably because of the sheer number of users sharing the available DSL line for the entire building. Hands down, Avenue has, in less than a year, become the place to be in Naga. And the free WiFi is surely one of the come-ons. The Cu family, and Donald, must be grinning from ear to ear.
Anyway, last Saturday afternoon, my two daughters Pia and Pep -- and 36 other classmates -- finally did their recital at the Madrigal Center for Social Entrepreneurship at the Ateneo de Naga University. It went quite smoothly, except for a little snafu at the beginning (a little past lunch) that ruffled some feathers at the nearby Ignatian House.
Lead workshop facilitator Jobert Narvadez, and Julma, too, should be proud of the outcome nonetheless. The weather cooperated well -- with rainclouds massing to the south, I thought it would rain towards the end but fortunately it did not. I took some photos and video footages -- using a Sony DCR-HC40 -- of the occasion, but is still having trouble downloading them to my PC, mainly because of the Firewire thing.
Which made me pine all the more for that Nokia N73, which remains a little pricey.:) But I will get there, at one point in time.
15 December 2006
Bikol lit renaissance is afoot
FIRST, it was the Palanca. Then the 2004 Premio Arejola. Now, here's yet another proof that a renaissance in Bikol literature is afoot -- powered both by traditional and new media, the latter including blogging -- with no less than the portal to Philippine literature heralding its coming.
Let's savor together what I think are the choicest cuts:
By the time Kristian Cordero’s name was announced as 2006 Madrigal-Gonzalez Best First Book Award winner, everyone at the Claro M. Recto Hall knew that the awarding was to be an event of many firsts. It was the first time a volume of poetry won. It was the first time a trilingual book won. It was the first time a book published by a small press won...As I wrote Kristian many fortnights ago: "Ma-o talaga a taga-Rinconada!" My heartfelt congratulations.:)
A hush fell over the Recto Hall as Cordero related moments of creativity in the face of the storm battering the region. Mga Tulang Tulala: Piling Tula sa Filipino, Bikol at Rinconada, then, is a testament not only to the emerging success of Bikol literature but also to the artist’s ability to triumph over the external life in the face of the most heart-wrenching of circumstances...
The unanimous decision of the 2006 judges bodes well for Bikol literature and writing from the regions in general....
UPDATE (6:02pm): Want another proof that blogging is helping power this renaissance? As I was furiously composing the above, little did I know that Kristian (who I have yet to meet in person) has been here at Koko Café all along -- until I asked him, noting that the photo I nicked bears a striking resemblance to the young man in sandals who is leisurely enjoying the free WiFi in this joint.
Photo nicked from Kristian's blog More...
A Naga seafront a hundred years hence?
THIS Reuters news item that greeted me in my Yahoo! newsbox this morning grabbed my attention and sent my mind spinning.
The world's oceans may rise up to 140 cms (4 ft 7 in) by 2100 due to global warming, a faster than expected increase that could threaten low-lying coasts from Florida to Bangladesh, a researcher said on Thursday.
And it led me to this Wikipedia article, which led me to this interactive Google-powered flood maps, and finally to the three maps for the Metro Naga area (right), arranged in the order of flooding scenario: 0 meter (status quo), 1 meter and 2 meters. I did not try the worse scenarios (it can go as high as 14 meters) for the fear of the unthinkable.This weblog entry by Alex Tingle, the guy behind the flood maps, and the comments that flooded it, and continues to, showed some limitations of his work: there are six, including tides as non-factor. So I googled "tides in the Philippines" and got this: a graphical and tabular data on the high and low tides in Legazpi City (which is just 100 kms away) over the next two days. It appears the difference between high and low tides in our corner of the world ranges between 0.5 t0 1.25 meters.
Which makes the lowermost map very plausible -- assuming Stefan Rahmstorf's calculations are correct. Effectively, it would put a seafront right beside Naga City as the San Miguel Bay as we know it will extend deep into the Bula-Minalabac area.
As always, phenomena like this will cut both ways: a seafront will be nice but it means goodbye to the low-lying areas of the Bicol peninsula as we know it. And the danger of storm surges, which is what brought about the terrible flooding in Legazpi City in Reming's aftermath, especially given the increasing ferocity of typhoons that regularly pass our way. While we may not see this in our lifetime, and I definitely do not want to be an alarmist, but I think this is one set of data we should etch in our collective consciousness because the future Naga City of our children is at stake, and most probably at risk. More...
A very powerful religion
WHEN I was cruising last night along the lightless Naga-Carolina Road on the way home to Pacol, I thought I saw a flying saucer (aka UFO) land to my right -- reminiscent of the Close Encounter movie -- somewhere in barangay San Felipe. Only that when slowed down and looked closer, it was really the Caceres Sports Arena.
It was only around 7:30pm yet the edifice is already full up to the brim, peopled by local cockfighting enthusiasts from all walks of life: there are those who came in their SUVs, cars and pickup trucks; many through their scooters and motorbikes; and the lesser-off onboard passenger jeepneys (PUJs) that have converted one side of the road as their parking area.
To my shock, when I came back to the city center early this morning to deposit my wife and eldest at Cam High -- it was only around 10 minutes past 6am -- the place is still full of life, although a number of enthusiasts are already lumbering their way to the awaiting PUJs with shoulders drooping, while some have the sprightly bounce in their steps.
A week ago, I texted Mike and Grace in their popular afternoon program over RMN-DWNX that only four days after Reming pummelled the city, the sports arena is already operating. "Grabeng pagtubod ki San Pedro!" I said in an attempt to humor the two.
But Grace, who I assume is not an aficionado (I have yet to see a woman paying homage to the Catholic saint most associated with this bloody sport), curtly dismissed my remark, even rationalizing that the local bolangeros probably turned to cockfighting to make money and rebuild their homes.
Which made me realize -- being a daily passerby of the sports arena -- that cockfighting is actually a second religion to this particular segment of local society, more powerful if not of equal footing with their mostly catholic faith. Day in and day out they come without fail whenever there is a cockfighting event, analogous to the traditional day of worship of the regular faithful; the kristos serve as the high priests in their rituals which, today, lasted until the well into early morning: all in the greater glory of the God of Luck.
If somebody can point me to a definitive study into the sociology and psychology of the Filipino cockfighting aficionado, and into this fascinating phenomenon, I will be most grateful.
14 December 2006
A parliamentary government? No, not yet
I WAS meaning to write about it early this morning, but not only did I misplace my copy of his slides but also had a hard time finding his final quote of Plato by way of Leo Strauss, which I -- and most everyone in the audience, particularly Councilor Miles Raquid-Arroyo -- think summed up the essence of his lecture.
Our guest was Dr. Patrick Riordan, a member of the Irish Province of the Society of Jesus, who talked on "Power and Charter Change: Control or Tyranny?" last night at the Madrigal amphitheatre at the Ateneo de Naga University.
My difficulties notwithstanding, he essentially pointed out the danger of pursuing systemic change which, he said, must always be viewed with the worst-case scenario in mind, when everything else fails. This is a very critical point that had been conveniently swept under the rug in the reckless drive for charter change -- first via the people's initiative route, then lately the rushed constituent assembly attempt by the House leadership; a failed power grab, says Manolo Quezon -- that the Arroyo administration and its allies has been foisting on the nation.
In his concluding remarks, Riordan -- who teaches political philosophy at Heythrop College, University of London and is on his fifth visit to the Philippines -- asks: Are the benefits to be achieved through charter change so great that they are worth the threat to stability and predictability that any change would entail?
The affable Irishman reminded me of what David Ellis, a classmate at Cambridge, said when I first told him about the effort to change the Philippine system of government from parliamentary to presidential. David, who once worked as a housing manager in a local authority outside London before deciding to give graduate work a stab after retirement, is fed up with the apparent limited choice under the British parliamentary system. Hence, he cannot understand why Filipinos would want to give away their right to directly choose their leaders. (As things stands though, as shown by the recent unfolding events, only the House leadership and their ilk want to give it away, and in the process control everything.)
Riordan essentially echoed the same thing, pointing out that UK's strength is also its weakness: the absence of a bill of rights, of a written constitution, and a deficient separation of powers under a parliamentary system can easily degenerate into tyranny -- shades of V for Vendetta. Only an operative culture to pursue the common good has prevented it from happening.
That kind of culture underpinning an effective parliamentary system is what the Philippines lack at the time being. What will prevent the same defects -- which charter change is envisioned to cure -- to arise again and again, when the flaws are actually in the people themselves? the elusive Platonian quote (as I recalled it) said in a perfect windup.
And so it is not yet appropriate for the country, Riordan finally said when coaxed by Vice Mayor Gabby Bordado about the bottomline of his lecture.
13 December 2006
There's still time to help little Jack
IMAGINE having a child with a serious, life-threatening disease that's mostly unheard of where you live. Imagine not having health insurance, and living in a country that's medically a few steps behind the first world when it comes to rare cases like Fanconi Anemia (FA)....Imagine getting up every day hoping your child will get through it without getting sick or needing a transfusion.
I know these are hard times, especially for a city like ours that had just scraped through the most destructive natural disaster in the last 50 years. But the quote above is something else, especially for a father like myself. And I'd like to believe we still hold the other half of the sky.:)As I write this, Urbano's campaign on behalf of Jack Simbulan still has 12 days to go. So there is still time to help little Jack. (I hope provisions for Philippine-issued credit cards can be made.)
Those who want some more details, there's this detailed explanation -- which contains the above quote -- from Urbano's latest post on Jack and the rare medical challenge he faces. More...
12 December 2006
Powerless after Reming: The other side
ON THE other hand, there are positives that come with the dark, powerless nights at our Grandview community.
My bubbly daughter Pep -- my "Panaginip"-singing 'pusong mamon' of a daughter -- was fuming mad when Reming unroofed the multipurpose center of our little subdivision, which is located right in front of our house. "Our tambayan is gone," she rued. "We don't have a place to play anymore."
But the darkness that took away the TV, the Playstation 2 and the DVD player has forced her, sister Pia and their playmates to improvise. Now, during evenings, I hear them doing school programs -- where vocal solos and dance numbers are common fare -- that sounded much too familiar, because in my elementary days, when my teachers get tired of delivering their lessons, this is what they ask us to do as they rest for their second wind.
As a result, Deal or No Deal's loss became female bonding's gain. Technology's unscheduled outage has strengthened the social ties that bind childhood friends. And I believe our little community is all the better because of it.
Which makes me pine for the days of my youth when I and my childhood friends from Pili and Minalabac would drink the night away, mostly to the tunes of the '60s and the '70s, aided by a solitary guitar that becomes jukebox-like in the hands of Pol-Art Bautista: a dying rite of passage that karaoke and Manny Pacquiao's Magic Sing-Extreme have all but consigned to oblivion.
The problem with being peripheral
NORMALCY is slowly returning to Naga, but at a much slower pace than it was after Typhoon Milenyo. Power was restored to much of the urban areas of the city late last week but after a quick burst of activity, it appeared Casureco II had other peripheral urban areas in its coverage to attend to.
Early this morning, as I was checking if Cabrê (which is how my kids call Vic Cabrera's Grandview Minimart) and Aman (their competing store across the street) are already open to get our daily Enoy's sliced bread, I chanced upon Luis Marasigan, Grandview Elementary OIC. Buying his own breakfast of probably champorado or pancit, he was complaining to the Escaños that centro Calabanga (which is around 30-40 minutes away from Naga) has already been energized! Our Grandview/Green Valley community, on the other hand, can only envy the brightly lit city center -- visible especially during the lately moonless early evening. It's been almost two weeks since Reming, and all we see are the still fallen Casureco posts and cables littering the Naga-Carolina road -- with a few solitary steel posts rising in between.
I woke up at past 2 this morning -- weighed down by some unfinished business I just cannot seem to put away -- and only had a few catnaps in between. For the most part, I alternated with my wife in vigorously fanning the humid air that is again making Pep, Nokie and Bada uncomfortable in their sleep. The windows are already open, but unlike the other night, there was no cold December air coming in.
I know, I know. One has to have tons of patience in times like this. But these are also the times I longed for the years when we were still renting a unit at the Barbosas of Calauag. Then, typhoons from time to time also visited Naga and blacked out the city, but being in the center (or pericenter, if there is such a word) of things, we reap the benefits that go along with it.
In my frustration with being peripheral -- and being way down Casureco's totem pole of priorities -- I quickly constructed the following verse in my cellphone while driving to fetch my wife from Cam High. Unfortunately, Mike and Grace already signed off so I just saved it in my "Saved Text Messages" folder. But I will surely fire it away this afternoon, the moment they sign on in that popular radio program at DWNX.
Tigsik ko an Casureco II
Kalbo na siguro an payo ko
Uda pang kuryente sa Grandview!
Photo by Bob Ursua
11 December 2006
08 December 2006
Like an ostrich burying its head in the sand
I CAUGHT the tailend of Albay Gov. Fernando Gonzales's interview over Magandang Umaga Bayan at ABS-CBN, where he called on his constituents -- in the face of the incoming Typhoon Seniang that is being projected to bring more rains to the province -- to listen only to duly constituted authorities, and not to other entities, in times of disasters.
Obviously smarting for being caught with their pants down by the deadly foray of Supertyphoon Reming, I can understand why the good governor badly wants to do it right this time. Indeed, when evacuations are necessary, there is wisdom in the local state -- steered by a decisive leadership -- and its apparatuses moving in concerted action.
I can only hope he did not mean these "other entities" to include local experts like Mike Padua who is admirably filling in for whatever limitations the local Pagasa unit in the Metro Naga area has. For the truth of the matter is, Padua's invaluable service -- in partnership with RMN-DWNX which furiously stayed on the air before, during and after Reming's rampage -- has effectively saved countless lives. And he had been doing this service unselfishly since he established the Typhoon2000.ph website in 1997, in the process earning him the moniker "Mr. Typhoon".
Yesterday, when Mayor Robredo wrote President Arroyo a status report on the damage wrought by Reming, he said
What the [media] reports have glossed over is the fact that the eyewall of that supertyphoon (where the strongest winds of up to 265 kilometers per hour were found) actually came very close, only 12 kilometers south of Naga City, after entering Luzon mainland via Tiwi, Albay. Prompted by information from Typhoon2000.ph – a Naga-based website – we have started preparing for its coming as early as November 25, even before it entered the Philippine area of responsibility (PAR). This is one of the reasons why the city did not suffer a single human casualty, although there were 15 cases of injuries.Thomas Friedman, in his opus The World is Flat, said that since the turn of the millennium, Globalization 3.0 is being powered by individuals and small groups. I believe Padua is Exhibit "A" of this paradigm shift in a city that has embraced this thinking. To miss this paradigm shift is to be like an ostrich burying its head in the sand.
Image nicked from www.fotosearch.com More...
Now it can be told
EVER since I resumed posting after Reming hit Bicol, I've been wondering why Albay was hit harder despite the fact that the supertyphoon came much closer to Naga -- in fact only around 12 kms south of the city. This can be seen from the UNOSAT map (top) showing the deadly path it took last November 30.
Thanks to Mike Padua's über-useful website on tropical storms entering the country, I now have the answer, in the form of the bottom map from a NASA website that specializes in tropical rainfall measurement. The following quote explains:
Rainfall totals exceeding 200 mm (~8 inches) are shown in red and extend from the western Philippine Sea across southern sections of Luzon, Catanduanes Island (northwestern most island shown), and northern Samar. Locally up to 18 inches of rain were reported in Albay province.This reminded me of a similar typhoon sometime in the mid-90's whose name eludes me. It hit Naga at around midnight, and the one picture that comes back to mind over and over again were the huge amount of mud and silt -- called dalnak in the vernacular -- its floodwaters deposited right at the city center.
Another is the unusually high water level it brought: If I recall it right, Francis Soler (then my boss at a local aviation concern) recounted to me that their residence in Barangay Dayangdang was flooded waistdeep. Fortunately, the flood went out quite quickly. More...
07 December 2006
Here's how to help Naga
IN CASE you want to help our city recover from the destruction wrought by Supertyphoon Reming, the following information from the Typhoon Reming Task Force will be useful:
FOR LOCAL RESIDENTS:
You may turn over your donations -- in cash or in kind -- at any of the following offices:FOR NON-LOCAL PHILIPPINE RESIDENTS:
- San Francisco of Assisi Parish Church, San Francisco, Naga City 4400, c/o Fr. J. Nelson B. Tria. Tel. No. 63.54.4737570
- City Government Secretariat: Office of the City Mayor, City Hall, Naga City 4400. Tel No. 63.54.4732240. Fax No. 63.54.8111286.
- Private Sector Secretariat: MNCCI Office, 2/F, Velasco Building, Panganiban Drive, Naga City 4400. Tel. Nos. 63.54.4733519/9258/6318.
You may deposit your donation in the name of Task Force Reming-Naga at any of the following Philippine peso accounts:FOR FOREIGN DONORS:
- Savings Account No. 0007-3102644-6, Allied Bank, Panganiban Drive, Naga City 4400.
- Savings Account No. 1890069793, Banco de Oro, Penafrancia Avenue, Naga City 4400.
- Savings Account No. 8861-00924-7, Bank of the Philippine Islands, Padian Street, Naga City 4400.
You may wire your donation to the following USD account:Updates on the ongoing work of the local Typhoon Reming Task Force can be accessed from its newly established weblog here. More...
Account Name: City Government of Naga
Account Number: 0044-0029-65
Depository Bank: Land Bank of the Philippines-Naga Branch
Address: LBRDC Building, General Luna Street, Naga City, Philippines 4400
SWIFT Code: TLDTTHMMAXXX
I'm starting to love YouTube:)
AND WHO won't -- if on one's second try, he lands on a weblog of the venerable New York Times no less?
Well, that's what happened yesterday, to which my Grandview neighbor and fellow blogger Senen Ebio tipped me off in an email.
The particularly entry in the NY Times weblog called The Lede -- which Tom Zeller, Jr. maintains -- can be found here. My YouTube videos -- the most popular of which had been viewed 901 times as of this writing since I posted it last Dec 4 -- can be accessed from this post.
To those wondering what's behind the name, here's the blurb:
About The LedeIn the news business, the opening sentences of a story are referred to as its "lede" -- spelled that way, journalism lore has it, to avoid confusion with the lead typesetting that once dominated newspaper printing presses. Although a tightly focused narrative typically follows the lede, every sentence in a news story has the potential to spiral off in new directions, and each paragraph leaves behind unexplored angles. That's where The Lede's mission begins.
More...
06 December 2006
The Albay disaster: A bomb ticking since 2000
ALBAY 3rd district congressman Joey Salceda had all the soundbites in the following quote from this Inquirer article:
“Like a femme fatale, Mayon is the culprit. Reming just pulled the trigger to the humanitarian disaster in Albay,” said Salceda, who believed that the crisis was preventable if Phivolcs had advised a forced evacuation.But Phivolcs is not entirely at fault. As early as January 2000, the agency had issued a lahar hazard map that is uncannily accurate, as the satellite imageries on Guinobatan and Daraga, freely available from UNOSAT, show. In effect, this disaster is a bomb that has been ticking on silently since the turn of the millennium, its tonnage multiplied many times over by this year's rumblings that began on July 18, which Reming's winds finally detonated last November 30.
He noted that the weather bureau had announced as early as Nov. 27 that a supertyphoon would hit the country.
“That should have triggered Phivolcs to issue an alert on possible lahar flows. Yet it was clear that the areas hit by Mayon’s lahar were beyond the extended 8-kilometer permanent danger zone which would have been covered by Alert 4, the highest issued during Mayon’s eruptions,” Salceda said.
The burning questions are:
- Why didn't Phivolcs and Pagasa (which is responsible for flood forecasting) come out with the critical advisories on a regular basis in the runup to Reming?
- And what were regional authorities -- Legazpi City is Bicol's regional administrative center and home to regional offices of national government agencies -- and local officials -- from the governor to city and municipal mayors down to the barangay officials -- doing all the while?
A perfidy of the highest order
THE fingerpointing started two days ago, as shown by these Inquirer articles here and here. With thousands of their fellow Albayanos dead and many more missing, a congressional investigation on what went wrong should have been the highest priority for Albay congressmen Edcel Lagman (1st district, which includes the heavily hit Sto. Domingo town) and Joey Salceda (3rd district, which includes the god-forsaken Guinobatan town).
I would also include Carlos Imperial (2nd district, including Legazpi City, Daraga and Camalig) but he has been practically invisible since reelection in 2004.
Unfortunately, Lagman and Salceda -- together with my own congressman Luis Villafuerte (whose province suffered the biggest damage in terms of electric transmission lines) -- are more concerned with resurrecting the half-dead charter change (cha-cha) rather than exact accountability from those who had been sleeping on their duties in the face of this deadly disaster. And for one be the congressional district representatives that they should be, for chrissake.
As usual, Manolo has the blow-by-blow account on this ongoing perfidy of the highest order. In the face of this unfolding national catastrophe, if there is one Philippine institution today that Reming should have destroyed, it has to be the House of Representatives.
Cagsawa ruins: Slaying an urban myth aborning
A FAST circulating rumor here in Naga, in the aftermath of Supertyphoon Reming, is the alleged disappearance of the world-famous Cagsawa Ruins from the map.
A photo taken by a group of city hall personnel yesterday -- led by Public Safety Office head Lito del Rosario and Joe Perez of the Visitors Center -- should lay this aborning urban myth to rest. Encircled in the background is the Cagsawa church belfry still standing.
What were damaged were the low-lying structures, including the Cagsawa lodge and the spillway leading to the park.
Compare these with photos nicked from this article by Jenny Exconde, which includes that of the original Cagsawa Church before Mayon buried it in 1814. One gets the feeling that (1) restoring the park to its glorious days will take some time, and (2) this deadly episode will not be the last.
05 December 2006
A plea for help
THE newly activated Typhoon Reming Multi-Sectoral Relief and Rehabilitation Task Force met for the first time this morning, and issued the following plea for help. I am reproducing the letter in its entirety:
TO OUR FELLOWMEN:A PDF copy of the letter can be downloaded here. More...
Greetings from the people of Naga City.
Super Typhoon Reming struck Naga on November 30, 2006, causing widespread damage to private dwellings, crops and livestock, public schools, farm-to-market roads, health and community centers, the city’s waste management facilities, as well as to power, telecommunications and water utilities. As of this writing, total damage is estimated to have reached P187.5 million.
In response to the massive destruction previously unseen hereabouts, the local private sector have volunteered their services in the relief and rehabilitation effort fielding manpower and resources in support of the city government’s own relief and rehabilitation activities.
Notwithstanding this local public-private partnership, the damage wrought by Super Typhoon Reming, which came just weeks after Typhoon Milenyo, is of such magnitude as to dwarf the joint capacity of the city government and the private sector, already sapped by the previous typhoon, to effectively respond to the relief and rehabilitation requirements of the city.
Toward this end, we have created the Typhoon Reming Multi-Sectoral Relief and Rehabilitation Task Force to lead Naga’s rebuilding efforts. Through this non-partisan government-private-civil society initiative, may we therefore request your kind office to join hands with us in:
1. Extending immediate relief assistance to affected households particularly in terms of various housing materials (especially nipa, GI sheet, or plastic sheeting for roofing, water containers for potable water storage, non-perishable food items);
2. Rehabilitating vital public infrastructure facilities, particularly the following:
- School buildings (estimated damage: P30.5 million)
- Farm-to-market roads (estimated damage: P10 million)
- Barangay health centers (estimated damage: P20 million)
- Barangay daycare centers (estimated damage: P15 million)
- Naga City Materials Recovery Facility (estimated damage: P15 million)
- Barangay multi-purpose halls (estimated damage: P27 million);
- Various city government offices and facilities (estimated damage: P10 million); and
3. Reviving agricultural crops and livestock (estimated damage: P10 million excluding damage caused by Typhoon Milenyo).
Your immediate assistance will go a long way in alleviating the suffering of our people and in restoring our city back to being one of the key drivers in Bicol’s economic growth.
Dios mabalos!
Very truly yours,
FR. J. NELSON TRIA, Chair, Typhoon Reming Multi-Sectoral Relief and Rehabilitation Task Force
JESSE M. ROBREDO, City Mayor
Our city the day after Reming
SCENES around Naga City the day after Typhoon Reming battered Bikolandia. From top to bottom:
(1) A Casureco wooden pole split in two, with the upper end dangling in midair.
(2) Fallen acacia trees blocking the Naga-Carolina road at Km 5 junction.
(3) The wrecked NFA warehouse meets its end, after 34 years of public service.
(4) The roofless Metro Naga Sports Complex grandstand, three-time venue of the Palarong Pambansa (National Games). Some of the roofspans were hurled at the gate of the Ateneo de Naga high school campus 50 meters away.
(5) The Seaoil gasoline station along Magsaysay Avenue.
(6) What was left of the Hope Christian School gymnasium along Panganiban Drive. The school will reopen on Monday (Dec 11), a week later than others in the city.
(7) An overturned native gazebo sits on its roof in Barangay Cararayan.
(8) Army personnel helping direct traffic as Maharlika Highway is cleared of fallen acacia near the Carmelite Convent in Concepcion Pequena.
(9) One of the public school buildings destroyed by Reming. DepEd-Naga estimates place the total damage at P30.5 million.
(10) Mayor Jesse Robredo (right) and Vice Mayor Gabby Bordado visit one of the 6,520 households with partially damaged homes in the city. Together with some 1,000 families whose units were totally destroyed, they represent 29% of Naga's total household population.
(11) Ongoing work at the Naga City Coliseum at CBD 2, already hampered by Milenyo, suffers a more terrible setback.
04 December 2006
Beware of November: Views outside my window
I TOOK the following videos during lulls of Reming's onslaught last Thursday, especially when her howling winds already reversed course and spared our house.
The first was taken at 2:04pm. Note that the roof of the Grandview multipurpose hall is still intact. My car is parked just outside our house, right below my window. Like most everyone in Bikolandia, we never expected a devastating howler will come avisiting.
The second one was taken more than an hour later, at 3:09pm to be exact. I merely caught the tailend of the typhoon's tremendous fury. But it shows how she waylaid our multipurpose hall's roofting too easily -- very much like my youngest daughter Ophelia Bianca tearing and crumpling her Ate Sofie's pad papers when having her fits.
This is already our sixth year at Grandview, and that hall stood up to the previous ones practically unscathed. Until Reming came along.
The third and fourth ones came another hour later, four minutes apart. The one at 4:17pm shows Reming starting to rip off the most exposed portion of the roof of our neighbors, the Ordases from Rinconada. It also shows the nearby church suffering the same damage.
The last one at 4:21pm was taken as Reming's onslaught started to slow down. The roof of the Ordases would stay as they are, until our community woke up the following morning to a terrible damage wrought by Typhoon Reming on Bonifacio Day 2006.
N.B. My deepest thanks to Avenue Square and Max's for their generous free WiFi connection that finally enabled me to rejoin the blogosphere.
My Grandview neighborhood the day after
FROM top to bottom:
(1) One of the hardest hit units in our neighborhood.
(2) Steel purlins left hanging, with Casureco wires as clothesline.
(3) Even the newly built church suffered Reming's fury.
(4) My daughter Sofie's suddenly roofless classroom.
(5) A basketball board laid bare.
02 December 2006
"This is all too surreal!"
THIS WAS what Vice Mayor Gabby Bordado texted me moments before Globe Telecoms went kaput last Thursday afternoon (Nov 30) as Typhoon Reming was battering Naga.
As I write this, most of the city hall staff have switched to Smart prepaid, including me. When my 24-month lockout period ends in six months, I'll also say goodbye to what an otherwise was a good relationship. There's no use staying with a service provider that abandons you in the hour of greatest need. When Milenyo struck, Globe also went off the air; now, you have this.
Anyway, surreal is the word to describe what the two of us just went through. A freak off-season snow storm that blanketed most of British Columbia and the Greater Vancouver area as we were about to leave. An ordeal with uncaring Philippine Airline staff at Vancouver International Airport. And now this: the strongest typhoon in memory that practically leveled most houses made of light materials, sent roofs flying off decently built ones like in our subdivision, as well as sturdily built homes of the better-off in Naga.
Reming's strongest winds -- reaching as much as 230 kph, according to the live blow-by-blow account of Mike Padua of typhoon2000.ph fame over RMN-DWNX -- starting hammering the city by around 1pm, as Mike predicted. From 2:30-4pm, howling winds from the northeast slammed our rowhouses from the rear. Sensing its unusual strength, I instructed my wife, mother-in-law and our daughters to go downstairs; only I and my two young sons remained and made our last stand against Reming.
For around 45 minutes, I climbed and clambered up the ceiling hatch and pushed downwards whenever winds would come and raise it by as much as 4 inches; my sons were pushing their weight against the inch-thick plyboards that we positioned as additional buffer against the left window that partially opened when two jalousies broke down. When I peered through the ceiling, I can see light emanating from our neighbor's, indicating that his rooftop already gave in. Fortunately, Reming's winds reversed course by around past 4pm; had it continued for another 30 minutes, our house would have certainly followed suit. Fifteen out of the 18 or so rowhouses comprising our block had their roofs ripped apart by Reming in varying degrees of destruction.
When I told my ordeal to Mayor Robredo and company yesterday, he said I probably have prayed more intensely than the rest. As we were making our stand against Reming, my wife said she never prayed as hard in her entire life.
