Again, the answer is in the heart

By Al S. Mendoza

 

TRAGEDY upon tragedy has struck the Aquino government.

Barely has Mr. Aquino a.k.a. P-Noy warmed his seat at the Palace when the Luneta hostage drama that killed eight Hong Kong tourists happened in 2010.

Next, two typhoons claimed hundreds of lives in the cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan in 2011.

In December 2012, Davao got badly battered by a typhoon that entire barrios and some towns had been wiped out, in the process killing scores of our countrymen.

This year alone, many of our Muslim brothers, obviously misled by their leaders, were killed trying to overrun Sabah in the name of inheritance claims over that Malaysian territory.

It was followed by the Zamboanga siege staged by separatist Muslims led by Nur Misuari, killing hundreds that included young officers fresh from the Philippine Military Academy shot by sniper fire.

The same rebellion razed many houses torched by the terrorists in several barangays they had occupied in and around Zamboanga City.

And then, while the P10-billion pork barrel scam was raging in the Senate halls probing alleged mastermind Janet Lim Napoles, supertyphoon “Yolanda” struck.

Packing winds of up to 380kph, “Yolanda” triggered deadly storm surges that drowned hundreds in Tacloban City and other towns in Leyte and Samar, and also in Palawan and Oriental Mindoro.

CNN, quoting Red Cross data, kept saying as many as 10,000 were feared dead.

Reports said the storm surges, accompanied by howling winds, virtually obliterated barangays and towns in Leyte.

I can almost believe that.

Just compare “Yolanda’s” maximum wind speed of 380kph to the maximum speed limit at both the NLEx and SLEx, which is only 100kph.

Notice that “Yolanda’s” fury was three times faster than those expressway speed limits.

The fastest I did at the expressway was 180kph.

And it felt like I was flying already, the car I was driving seemingly not touching the surface of the expressway anymore.

“Yolanda” is now listed as the strongest ever typhoon to hit planet Earth of all time.

In fairness, P-Noy had ordered preemptive evacuation of people who were on the path of “Yolanda” three days before it unleashed her fury.

But apparently, the saying no one can control Mother Nature came out true again.  Brutally.  Again.

So devastating and teeth-gnashing was “Yolanda’s” wrath that people, especially the victims, couldn’t but ask, again, “Why, Dear God, must you allow this to happen, again?”

It is really times like this when we ask Dear God, again:  “What have we done to deserve such punishment?”

But Dear God does not, will never, answer.

Always, it is us who will provide the answer.

That answer is in the heart.  Again.

And, silently amid the din, destruction and death, the heart is saying, “The mystery of faith says it all.”

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