Typhoon Juan Lessons Learned
It's been overcast all day today. There was a steady drizzle since morning but most of that is clearing now into steady gray skies. All day today, we were catching the tail end of Typhoon Juan.
I must say here in Metro Manila we have not caught the brunt of the storm. All of the fury of Typhoon Juan was unleashed further up north where most of the damage is to be found. The whole Province of Isabela is under a state of calamity.
It was reported that at least 10 people were killed during the storm's passing. None due to any sort of negligence on the part of our local authorities. On the other hand, our national authorities right on down to the LGU's did wonderfully. From PAGASA to the DOH to the AFP-PNP teams and our local emergency teams on hand in their barangays, the whole nation worked like a clock.
These storms usually take a number of lives per year - a sad but inevitable fact. But without an adequate and spirited resolve to effectively defend from the worse of these typhoons particularly from our government authorities, these storms have a potential to wreak much, much more havoc. This particular time however - in the form of Super Typhoon Juan - it didn't. It was as if the whole Republic stood up against it and said, "I simply won't allow it".
So to me the lesson that has been made apparent here to my eyes is this - WE CAN: The Filipino can. If we really set our hearts into it as one nation from the President right down to the citizen on the ground - it can be done.
Truly, my fellow Filipino compatriots, everything else can only get better from here.
Therefore, let us offer thanks to God and say -
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Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.
It was also reported that we lost about 8.5 billion pesos worth of crops. That seems indeed to be a big loss. But crops grow back. And the work of the building up the earth is always before us.
Now, a Republic is a guardian of a people orphaned by war. Our Republic is endowed with such a spirit so that if we remain true to this spirit in ourselves, we shall find in our understanding of our Republic that people, especially the least of our people, lies at the core of its existence. And when we come to understand its meaning, we come to understand its work. And we begin to see the path that lay before us - the path that leads together to the dawn.
Because the real treasure of this nation is its people.