Lessons in life

There's no storm but there have been strong rains, nevertheless, in the last few days. This, according to the Pag-asa, is due to the southwest monsoon, or Habagat. The Habagat can be very mean in this part of the country. It brings about rains, floods and huge waves, some as high as six meters. These are the kinds of waves that could sink wooden-hulled fishing boats.

In the many years that I've been covering natural calamities, it has been no surprise that most of these calamities happen at this time of the year. After all, this is the southwest monsoon. But I'm rather surprised, to say the least, to see the same victims of these natural calamities every year. Take the evacuees from Barangay 3 in Siaton town. They are currently staying at the Siaton auditorium, some 40 of them, because their homes were levelled by huge waves.

"This is the second time this happened to us," said Severina Baydid, 61. The first time it happened in their 13 years of living in that barangay was in 2001, or just five years ago. You know what they say about lightning--that it never strikes the same place twice. Well, waves apparently do. And it's surprising that we just never learn our lesson from nature. Many of the victims of this calamity just keep coming back to rebuild their homes, only to have them washed away by waves at another time.

I remember the Bible even has an exhortation against building your house in the sand and it would seem that many people living along the coastline have never read that part. Yet, many other Barangay 3 residents are leaving their fate to God. "Many residents refuse to evacuate to safer grounds, saying they are already used to this kind of weather," lamented Siaton Mayor Vincent Arbolado.

At the time, we visited the evacuation center yesterday, Provincial Social Welfare Officer Alice Lagarde's count stood at four homes totally destroyed with 19 others sustaining heavy damage. But the number could increase with the unabated rainfall in Siaton, swelling the two big rivers which enclose the town.

It's a damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don't-situation. "The sad thing if we allow these residents to stay in their homes is that we are the ones who will be blamed if anything happens to them," Arbolado said.

After receiving some assistance from the provincial government through the Provincial Social Welfare Office, the town distributed aid to the evacuees. "But we do not want the evacuees to establish total dependence on the local government unit. We only gave them assistance good for three days," Arbolado said.

And for the evacuees, living on three kilos of rice a day seems like a tough act. "We who are poor are used to eating a lot," said Severina's son Eliseo. "We are not used to the eating habits of rich people who measure their rice intake by the cup."

Baydid said that indeed, living on government subsidies would require some ingenuity on how to stretch the budget.

But after eating their lunch of rice, sardines and noodles, their next worry is how to build their new house. And where.

"We're planning to return to where our house once stood, but if we will be relocated by the government, well and good. But we will always return to the sea. That's where we get our livelihood," Baydid said. So much for life's lessons.*

back to top