The year ends with many Bicolanos still unable to shake off the horror and trauma wrought by typhoon Reming, decidedly the worst calamity to hit the Bicol region in several decades. In terms of human casualties it has no parallel in recent memory with over a thousand killed when rampaging mudflows cascading from Mt. Mayon buried homes and their occupants, most of whom never thought a disaster of the magnitude could occur.
Some quickly threw the blame on the Phivolcs for not issuing appropriate warnings before the typhoon of the peril of mudflows. The victims did not know that tons upon tons of volcanic sand and boulders spewed out by Mayon as it threatened to erupt months back were deposited on the shoulders of the volcano and were just waiting for heavy rains to come before they would sweep down with catastrophic perdition never seen in recent times.
As promptly as they were chastised Phivolcs officials also hastily disowned any lapse, saying they did issue warnings. But how were such warnings issued and how were they worded? Did Phivolcs emphasize the true danger or the agency simply told residents to move away forgetting that it was not easy to just leave their homes unless they were made to understand there was real danger?
Did Phivolcs coordinate with local governments who could have amplified the warning, there being ample time to disseminate the possible danger since Reming was anticipated many days before it would make a landfall?
Blaming may not bear fruit anymore at this time that disaster has struck and many lives have been lost. But indeed people are oftentimes not sufficiently warned of dangers lurking at their doorsteps because government agencies and personnel involved are sleeping on their jobs.
Like Phivolcs, PAGASA is another government agency prone to erratic forecasts. It is embarrassing but in Camarines Sur people are listening more to one Michael Padua than to PAGASA because the former who is not a government employee and who is merely using his expertise in weather forecasting has been able to accurately predict weather situations, much, much better than PAGASA which has bungled its job many times here in Camarines Sur by wrongly plotting the course of incoming weather disturbances.
Sadly, both agencies look like the PNP and the military who must protect the people from harm but sometimes truant personnel in their ranks are involved in holdup-robbery cases or in drug pushing.
With the advent of the New Year perhaps the national leadership can look into these dire lessons and make life a little bit better for our hapless people who frequently are in the receiving end of inefficiency of government men.
