Preparing for the ‘Big One’

About a year or so ago, the newspapers all shared stories about earthquakes and warning people to be prepared in case the “Big One” were to strike Metro Manila. This was on the heels of several small earthquakes that hit the Philippines and quite a few massive ones that hit countries abroad. It was enough to scare everyone and all of a sudden people were putting together “go-bags” filled with emergency equipment and essentials in case a strong quake were to hit the city center.

Since then, the panic has kind of died down a bit – which is good of course since panic gets you nowhere – but being prepared should not change. This past month was actually quite scary and quite a few earthquakes hit near Manila and in the surrounding areas. I remember because our family decided it was time to look in our go-bags again and update them just in case things had already expired and had to be changed and in case things needed to be added or removed.

I’m glad that events of the past few years have brought to light the importance of being prepared for any disaster and I think earthquake drills, which we are holding more often now, are essential however I also think we should try to be doing more. We are being given time to make essential changes and to prepare in advance and we shouldn’t waste it. We don’t want to get caught unprepared because then we’d have no one to blame but ourselves.

Recently the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) Director Renato Solidum along with Senator Panfilo Lacson stated that the government should put a solid plan in place about the line of succession should a major earthquake hit Metro Manila and key government officials are killed or incapacitated. While it may seem dramatic to some, this is important because in the event of a terrible tragedy like this, mass panic is sure to ensue and a vacuum of power or the lack of leadership will only make it worse. There has to be a contingency plan in place – something like Designated Survivor (to those who are fans of the new Kiefer Sutherland drama). We need to think ten steps ahead.

After all the “Big One” is not just a threat to scare people. Experts have been saying for a while now that the 100-kilometer West Valley Fault is ripe for movement. It is said to have some type of activity roughly every 400 years. The last recorded activity was 1658 so just based on the numbers alone it could happen any time now and honestly that is something we should all be worried about.

After all, it’s not we didn’t help it along. We destroyed so much of our natural resources and messed up the environment. Is it any wonder that Mother Earth is pretty upset with us? Crazy weather phenomenon has been the norm for the last few years and natural disasters are happening now more often than not and there isn’t anything we can do to predict them with 100% accuracy or to stop them. We have to do our best to “clean up our mess” as it were and prepare as much as we can.

We all still remember the terrible earthquake that hit Baguio years ago and made buildings tumble like a deck of cards hurting and killing so many. That type of earthquake would be so much worse here in Metro Manila where the population is so densely packed in and the infrastructure is so weak. Let’s be honest, our roads break yearly during rainy season. We don’t invest as much as we should in solid and good infrastructure but instead tend to use cheap materials and do rush jobs.

In the end I hope – as many others do – that the “Big One” doesn’t hit. But it would still be prudent to be exceptionally prepared for all circumstances.

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I’m puzzled by the Department of Justice considering making Janet Lim Napoles a state’s witness to pinpoint even more high-ranking government officials in the pork barrel scam. They have said in the past that the “least guilty” can become a state witness in a case like this, but it’s crazy to think that Napoles could be least guilty when she has been tagged as the mastermind behind the whole scam and the one that was making it all happen. Not to mention she is facing a 40-year jail sentence for a non-bailable offense at the Sandiganbayan.

My only thought here is that the government may want to use her to cough up the names of current high-ranking officials still in office today or those in the most recent past administration that are voicing out against the current administration. To think that this isn’t all about politics to a certain extent would be naïve. After all, it seems that mudslinging is the political move du jour and both camps are always looking for dirt on the other. This could be just another way to implicate more officials in a bad scandal.

And speaking of the pork barrel scandal it is preposterous that nothing concrete has really been done about it to this day? How long ago did the scandal come to light? And until now what has actually been done? Have people been prosecuted and judged? Has any of the money been returned? It’s so typical here in the Philippines for high-profile cases like this to go one forever with no real outcome. It’s happened so many times before – Maguindanao Massacare, SAF, and so much more. We cry foul and demand for justice but then as it drags on we seem to forget and move on to the next thing.

In the end if we really want things to change like we keep claiming we do, we have to be the ones to make sure it happens. We have to constantly remind those in power that they have a responsibility to those who put them there. We all need to work together to ensure that we don’t just keep sweeping things under the rug as we have always done in the past.