I'm not an expert on flood control... but I do hope the government finds a few of them, and ensure that the plans they come up with gets implemented. Also, I hope our infrastructures and disaster management (prevention, response and recovery) is improved in direct response to the Ondoy calamity.
I don't think I'm alone in wanting to read the post-mortem report on what went wrong and what are the next steps so that we can avoid another disaster like this (because storms like Ondoy will come to our islands again and again...) (Asiaaid, pagawa ng PR) (sorry, work-related line...)
I also hope people realize that we can do something about this. Nagging and blaming the government isn't the only option. Let's be more environmentally concerned (taking food out from a fast food store? Tell the server you don't need the plastic. Got trash? DON'T THROW IT ON THE STREETS!) Unfortunately, I still see people in the city throwing candy wrappers, cigarette butts and small papers around... As one of the better blog posts I've read about Ondoy said, in a democracy, we the people are the government, we don't need to wait for them to do something. And it's true. Getting pissed at government officials can only do so much... If we don't actually hold them (and ourselves) accountable for the problems that we are encountering, if we don't monitor their (and our own) actions, and if we don't make solutions for the problems on our level, then how can we expect change to happen for our country?
Lastly, just because it can't be said enough: Seeing the spirit of volunteerism and the amount of care and compassion that people have shown for the typhoon victims, and our general resilience against these kinds of dire situations makes me really proud as a Filipino. While do have our problems, we don't suck people! We're actually pretty great!
