The floods are coming

DON’T let the sunny days deceive you. The worst is yet to come. The La Niña phenomenon has not even started in spite of sporadic thunderstorms over the past weeks.

The seeming good fortune so far, however, should not lull our local government units into complacency, instead our LGUs should take this as an opportunity to check and double check preparations in the barangay level, continue to clear all canals of debris, inspect drainage pipes and dredge silted rivers.

And even as schools continue to cope with the adjustments made to make up for shortages experienced since the schools opened last week, the contingency plans to convert the classrooms into evacuation centers should already be reviewed.

Are the foodstuffs, sleeping bags and blankets for distribution to evacuation centers in place? Where are the ropes, bamboo rafts? What are the updated instructions to rescuers and evacuation center administrators?

The checklist is long, and time is never enough to review and check preparations for the worst!

 

Beastly beheadings

 IN barely two months, the notorious Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) executed two Canadians through beheading: John Ridsdel last April 25 and Robert Hall only last June 13.

 The atrocious killings, done somewhere in Sulu and condemned by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “acts of cold-blooded murder,”  were the bandits’ response to the non-delivery of P300 million they had asked in exchange each for the victims’ freedom.

 Ridsdel and Hall were with Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad and Filipino Martis Flor when they were abducted by the ASG from Samal Island in September last year.  Sekkingstad and Flor remain in captivity.  More hostages, both foreign and Filipino, also still suffer in other Abu Sayyaf camps. Only the payment of similar exorbitant ransoms will prod the bandits to set them free.

 How could such conscienceless, beastly brutal business, which the ASG started in 1995 yet, even thrive at all defies logic and human comprehension.  Indeed, where is the government all this time?

(For your comments and reactions, please email to: punch.sunday@gmail.com)

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