Are we ready?

“Meimei, what is drought?” Grandson#2 asked last Wednesday.

“It is when there is very little or no water at all so the soil gets very,” very dry. Then plants cannot grow because the soil is dry, then we cannot have food to grow in our soil.

“Can we buy food instead from the grocery?” answered our urban-raised Grandson#2!

His question about drought, however, is very timely.

With the super El Niño here, with forecasted adverse impacts on people, communities, sectors, are our people informed about this El Niño, and more importantly, are they informed about how best to prepare for El Niño?

Have multisectoral ICE (information, communication, education) campaigns been conducted throughout all communities, schools, businesses/offices/churches/parishes, others throughout all our cities/towns and communities in our various ecosystems?

We have read reports about BBM’s advice about preparing pails to store water, LGUs identifying water sources and strategies for making water accessible and available for people and communities.

Has each locality been trained and prepared for actual water shortage periods and situations? Have they been provided or allocated funds and resources to respond to El Niño? More importantly, have they organized and mobilized among themselves to cope and respond to El Niño’s adverse impacts given varied timetables (immediate, short-long-term)?

Aside from El Niño, has government, local and national, readied short-long term responses to prolonged oil supply problems, oil price hike challenges for our people, impending restiveness and clamor for genuine, essential socio-economic support of an increasing number of impoverished, hungry Filipinos?

Possible electricity hike, plus lower peso value, and more than inflation, stagnation are looming more prominently in the horizon --will our people still be willing to take more than the present heavy burden of survival that they are experiencing?

BBM and the LGU officials, for sure, see these clear tipping points for our people. Will they finally resort to urgent, effective welfare/employment/socio-economic policies and action programs to address this dangerous restlessness among our people? Or will they continue to ignore these visible signs of public outrage and people power?

How the Senate and Congress will finally decide the proposed 2027 National Budget will also be a very vital driver to contain or cause people power to once again be resorted to by Filipinos.

Is everyone, not only government, ready for any possible political upheaval and challenge from any organized group genuinely representing our people or selfishly advocating their own personal/group agenda?

Are we all ready for the truth about unexplained wealth now being scrutinized by the impeachment proceedings and judges?

Or are our people uncaring whether lies, misinformation carry more weight among factions, than the truth?

So far, the defense witnesses have been very evasive, unable to show supporting documents and evidence for their testimonies. A Facebook post joked whether the drinking water of Davao causes amnesia among witnesses whose common, frequent answers have been “di ko alam, di ko maalala!”

The prosecution has presented hard evidence, and documents from various witnesses from banks, public agencies, others. So far, the defense has not shown similar hard evidence to explain and confirm the sources of huge amounts of bank deposits and funds received by the incumbent vice president.

How will the impeachment proceed? How will the impeachment judges decide? Will they decide on the basis of truthful, solid evidence and documents or will they allow their political affiliation to decide their vote?

There is yet no definite date for the end of the impeachment proceedings.

Whether it will be soon (perhaps December) or later, are our people ready to provide time to review the information and documents, the evidence presented both by the defense and prosecution, and will they allow the truth, not their political bias, to prevail?

At this point, are we all ready for climate-socio-economic-political impacts in our midst sooner or later?