Habagat

The past week saw the people of Metro Manila and other nearby provinces in Luzon devastated yet again by another natural catastrophe. There was no storm signal, no name for the heavy (and seemingly endless) downpour of rain and strong winds that came beating down on all of us. The result: floods, landslides, loss of property and business, and worst of all, loss of precious lives.

I was a stranger to floods until I came to Manila in 2008. I pretty much grew up in paradise. Puerto Princesa is a beautiful city that is seldom visited by strong typhoons, never shaken by earthquakes, and due to the abundance of trees and strict anti-littering ordinances by the local government, never experienced any floods.

When I started working in Manila, I stayed with my sister in an apartment in Mandaluyong City. I was an online English teacher for Korean students and my work schedule was from 2 PM to 11 PM. Imagine my consternation when, one stormy night in August four years ago, I came home at midnight and found all of our things floating in knee-deep murky water inside our small rented space! Everything was wet, wet, wet! Our bed, our clothes, our shoes, our appliances. My sister was not home from work yet at that time. It was a good thing that the main switch for the electricity in our unit was located outside the main door and one of our fellow tenants from next door was wise enough to turn it off during the height of the rain and flooding that afternoon. I shudder to think what could have happened if the electricity was left on and our appliances had short-circuited. That experience was very traumatic for me. I honestly considered packing up what was left of my belongings and heading back to my parents' house in sunny, storm- and flood-free Palawan.

Me and my sister making emote while cleaning up after the apartment disaster in Mandaluyong.

After that, we moved to Rosario in Pasig City because it was nearer to my work in Eastwood. We were still staying there when Ondoy ravaged Luzon in 2009. Thankfully, our street did not get flooded at all, although we experienced two days of blackout and had no water from the tap for a day. We were luckier that time because we didn't directly experience the wrath of the infamous Ondoy, although we didn't fail to feel and see how it broke a lot of other people's hearts and lives. Just a few blocks away from our area was Ortigas Avenue extension going to Rizal, where a lot of people who were determined to get home to their families on the other side were seen on TV clinging to Meralco wires just to cross the deep flood waters. It was surreal.

Presently, we have an apartment in Makati conveniently located near the central business district and Bonifacio Global City. It was flood-free here last week, not even an inch of water in the street. I also didn't have any trouble going to and from work (our office is just ten minutes away from my house), apart from the wind trying to poke holes into my umbrella every time I go out into the rain, but my sturdy 'brelly and I braved through it all like real troopers! The location of our current home is so convenient for me that if only my beloved company hadn't declared a suspension of operations last Wednesday, I believe I would still be able to report to work in the height of the Habagat fury.

Although it didn't affect me that much, I'm still grateful that the rain had ceased and the floods in affected areas are now subsiding. I was very worried because many of my dear friends and some relatives were impacted by the recent tantrum thrown by Mother Nature. It was another harsh reminder to us all that there is a price to pay for every act of neglect that we do to the environment. On a positive note, yesterday morning when my Mama and I were in the marketplace, the lady selling dried gabi leaves for laing proactively offered not to put our purchases in a plastic bag. Instead, she looked for a space in the bag that my mother was already carrying, and stuck the package there. Para wala nang masyadong maraming plastic, sa panahon ngayon dapat magbawas na tayo ng plastic, she mused. I gave her a resounding, Tamuh! I left the market grinning, thinking that environmentalism is still not a lost cause.