By Gonzalo Duque 

 

Ss I was writing my column, a Super Typhoon named by weathermen as Uwan, is fast approaching Northern and Central Luzon.

A certain seer by the name of Pastor Perez, a black faith minister, predicted and further predicts that calamities will visit our country from the last week of October, November, December, and up to the last week of January, 2026.

Going by what we said, Cebu, particularly Bogo, experienced a devastating earthquake, rendering a lot of damages to the area. Again, Typhoon Tino followed suit that wrecked more areas in the Visayas. Cebu was the hardest hit.

And last Friday, another devastating Super Typhoon hit Northern and Central Luzon area with its wind described as having a width span of 900 kilometers.

This is now for real. It’s no longer a prediction, but a forecast by the Weather Bureau or the Philippine Atmospheric Geo-physical and Astronomical Science  Administration  (PAGASA).

I was surprised to hear Pastor Perez say that these devastations are hitting us because the Philippines, according to him, is a country whose people idolize or worship effigies made of stones or wood.

Pastor Perez recommends that we should fast for three days to mitigate the natural calamities that would visit us. These calamities, he said, are meant to cleanse the Philippines’ wicked ways, most prominent of which is graft and corruption.

The other thing that surprised me a lot was when I heard his other prediction through my.YouTube channel that many of our government officials will be resigning their posts in 2026 and beyond.

As things are going on, BBM and the other officials  are now  feeling the wrath of nature, pero despite this, manhid sila sa panawagan ng mga tao to resign because of  the large-scale graft and corruption issues confronting the government,

Folks, whether we believe in the predictions of Pastor Perez or not, we can conclude that the government or the Marcos administration has already lost the trust and confidence of the people in this administration.

You know, I do not usually engage in prophetic brouhaha, but this one seems to be telling me something.

Magdasal at mag-ayuno na lang tayo!

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I heard that Mayor Belen Fernandez is in South Korea because of an invitation extended to her to deliver a lecture at the World Humanities Forum 2 in Andong City. She’s on an official trip, tagging along with her, City Legal Officer Aurora Valle.

Under ordinary circumstances, this is alright. But with the incoming Super Typhoon Uwan, I am urging her to come back immediately.

She can simply advise her sponsor to excuse her because of the urgency of the situation. 

But I later learned that she and Valle will be back this Sunday and that’s two days after the typhoon already made a landfall somewhere in the Pacific corridor.

I am not afraid of the wind signal of Uwan because I know that the Sierra Madre Mountain may deflect and minimize the strength of its winds as in many previous typhoons in the past. What I am afraid of are the rain that it may bring, which might severely flood our city and the province again. 

Alam naman ni Mayor Belen that her detractors from the opposite political camp would always take advantage of any situation, by making any issue a mountain out of a molehill just to make her look bad. 

Alam  mo naman Belen na pati yong flood sa public cemetery noong Undas caused by a thunderstorm, ay sinisi sa yo. E alarm naman nila na you had nothing to do with it, because the public cemetery is a property of the Catholic Church, whose head here is Archbishop Soc Villegas. 

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My son, Nanoy Duque,  reported to me that during the recent meeting of the Dagupan Sports Commission with Philippine Sports Commission coaches, they strategized and set the goal of the DSC  headed by Finnela Sim to make Dagupan rise from No. 10 to No. 3 in the Regional  Athletic Association (R1AA)  meet next year. I think this is achievable.

You see, Dagupan City captured the R1AA crown back-to-back in 2018 and 2019. We only lost our overall championship when R1AA resumed hostilities after the two-year COVID-19 pandemic, which happened during the Lim administration.

During the pandemic, Finnela was taken out of the DSC and reassigned to the Malimgas Public Market on a night shift because of political vendetta and maneuvering. Insulted, she resigned and joined the Philippine Sports Commission as its regional director in the Ilocos Region.

It’s good that she returned as DSC commissioner. I am confident that she will do great and put back Dagupan, on top of the field in R1AA.