Last week, tragedy struck at the heart of the Muslim Autonomous Region. There was death and mayhem in the towns of Maguindanao del Norte as severe tropical storm "Paeng" unleashed its power.

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration, a specialized government entity, for the nth time, failed to predict accurately the ferocity and breadth of the huge downpour and typhoon. Maguindanaons thought that as per the advisory of the government weather monitoring body it will hit parts of the country with the province merely as collateral. They were wrong. And the BARMM government, caught literally with its pants down, faced one of the worst disasters in recent years.

When I was Undersecretary of Tourism, one of our flagship projects was promoting domestic tourism with our tagline "Huwag maging dayuhan sa sariling bayan." A significant feature of our marketing scheme was promoting Mindanao as an alternative tour destination because back then the island was free from worries of typhoons and weather disturbances.

This was a year-round atmospheric condition that really attracted and boosted the numbers of domestic and foreign tourists. That was then. Unfortunately for mother nature, because of man's greed for exploiting the environment, apathy, and perverse mulish, the twin scourge of climate change and global warming hastened at a great pace to alter the world's condition.

Now, rainfalls, floods, landslides, and other meteorological and geological oddities have become the new normal. And Mindanao has become the new theatre for flashfloods, impassable roads, and similar horrific consequences.

A news report said the eye of the storm is the Bicol region, "but the wide diameter of the cyclone — said to be almost 1,000 kilometers resulted in Tropical Cyclone Wind Signals being raised from Cagayan Valley in Luzon all the way to Northern Mindanao."

According to the latest report, about 54 died in Maguindanao alone and still counting because there are still missing as of press time. It was a nightmare for local government authorities as evacuees were temporarily housed in transport terminals.

The BARMM Rapid Emergency Action on Disaster Incidences, in no time, mobilized its manpower and resources. There are many impassable roads including bridges. The office should dish out regular media advisories on alternative road networks for motorists.