By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
After being marooned in our residence on a mountain side, with only the music of rain on our roof and the whistling of the wind for company. It was an excruciating two days of no electricity, thus no internet. And when our cellphones were already on lowbat, we practically had no contact with the rest of the world.
We had to come to the office yesterday, Thursday, to charge our cellphones. There was no current yet but the café downstairs have a generator and our cellphones suddenly came alive. Thanks to our kindhearted neighbor.
Could we not have charged in the car? Yes, but I lost the thing you stick into the lighter hole to be able to charge. It was one of those times when you just could not find small things you badly need.
Coming to the office today was like heaven. There is electricity and internet. The big bummer was the news on so many deaths and destruction.
A big effect that will be hounding us for months to come was the destruction of farms, particularly veggie farms in Benguet and nearby towns of Mtn. Province. Initial reports are of gardens having been flattened. Totally decimated are those planted with favorites that grow with trellises. Likewise, those like vines that crawl on trees or wires like sayote. We’ll have to make do without them or endure their prohibitive prices, perhaps until Christmas.
How about the farmers? They suffered total losses or of magnitudes that will keep them financially reeling for several planting seasons. The worst hit are those who borrowed from usurers to be able to afford the inputs last cropping season.
As we had been harping on since time immemorial, government must come up with efficient and reliable crop insurance programs. Otherwise, farmers will always be at the mercy of weather related calamities. A few years ago, we started hearing of such programs or projects but knowing our god forsaken country, it might take ages before these can be banked on by farmers for economic protection.
Am sure everybody with some humanity in them would like to help the hapless victims of Typhoon Egay but most of us are not in a position to do so. We ould only echo what I posted on the page of our chat group this morning which follows:
The bad news hit us in the gut. The deaths, landslides, farmers losing their crops and animals, etcetera, etcetera. We have to commiserate with the victims. This time of distress all over, it helps to think of Pandora’s Box which I had been repeating since time immemorial. When the box was opened by a stupid character, out came all the bad things in this world—all kinds of diseases, pestilence, misfortune, all sorts of problems, etc. But out flew with all those terrible things a small bug. Its name was HOPE. Hope is all we need to start moving on or recovering from any tragedy or calamity, personal or communal. Yes, rising from the ashes begins with HOPE. So if we cannot help by giving material things to victims, at least we can inspire in them some HOPE. Keep safe. **
