By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
The looks of the floods in Metro Manila were scary. And to think that I just wrote the editorial of today’s issue that Typhon Ulysses was a lousy one in terms of the rain that went with it. It was my point of view in Baguio City and Benguet. Its rain was light, if not just drizzle but it was “whiplashing” it on everything it passed by, as it howled its way to kingd0m come.
I was writing in the dark, no current, so no internet, TV or radio. I was like being shielded from the rest of the world. I woke up later and, lo and behold, switching the light was a realization of “let there be light, and there was light.” I got to the news and saw that the floods surpassed those of Typhoon Ondoy, at least in the towns of Rizal, more than a decade ago that devastated Metro Manila. The Marikina River water went higher than what Ondoy achieved by about half a meter.
In my about two decades in Metro Manila, I never saw the Diliman, Quezon City area get flooded. That area is a bit higher than the rest of Quezon City, if not most of Metro Manila. That is where the Quezon City hall, Quezon Circle, UP Diliman, Miriam College, Ateneo de Manila, Philippine Science High, etc., are found. And yet during Typhoon Ondoy, as I was told, it became a wide murky sea.
During Typhoon Ondoy, I saw on TV cars floating like match boxes. I also saw big trucks that got drowned by floods, literally. It was that bad.
Now with this Typhoon Ulysses, I can only imagine how Marikina City fared. If you drive from Quezon City hall to go to Marikina by taking Kalayaan Ave., you pass through UP Diliman then take Kalayaan Ave. and you pass by the front of Miriam College and Ateneo de Manila University. Then you descend to Marikina. It is much lower. You cut through Marikina Valley by taking Marcos Highway to go to Antipolo. The valley is now densely populated with businesses including big malls and, of course, residences.
At the end of the flat part of Marcos Highway, before it goes up to the mountains towards Antipolo, there is a road that descends a little bit where the classy Valley Golf Club is with lush Acacia trees spread around its well maintained greens where the golf holes are. Around it are foothills where enclaves of residences of the rich beckon over the golf course. On the farther side was the subdivision of my former Chinese client overlooking Metro Manila with all its haze of pollution. I once held a meeting there with the lot buyers of my client—they were (still are) big names in Philippine society—and I met my client’s skilled maintenance person, taking care of the stone walls or ripraps (kabite), water pumps, etc. He was from Sagada, originally. “Say n’yo?” While the rich have their exclusive enclaves there, not far from these, in Cainta, are the Igorot enclaves where mostly iSagadas and others from Mountain Province reside. As I heard, there is now an Anglican church there.
From Marcos Highway, had you decided not to go to Valley Golf Club but to go up the mountains towards Antipolo then you would have seen the mansions of residences overlooking Metro Manila. I once had a lofty dream to build my own house there. I used to have twice or thrice a month trial in one of the two courts in Antipolo. It was about a big case. Its filing fee was already a million pesos. That was back then in the early 90s, when money was still money. So whenever I came from such trials, driving through those mansions, I was always misty eyed.
Then I had to relocate to Baguio to take care of this paper. Long story short, I became as poor as a mouse. Then I saw on TV the effects of Typhoon Ondoy. The whole Markina Valley including the Marcos Highway area also became a murky sea. And now Typhoon Ulysses, which could be worse to some..
As I said during Typhoon Ondoy, goodbye dream house. You can have it.
Am sure though that the rich residential enclaves were not reached by the floods, also the Igorot enclaves. So not much difference between them.
But with Marikina and nearby Cainta becoming a murky sea, they must have been marooned. Well, the shape of things to come.**
