Floods of discontent
Unlike Noah, who had been warned of the coming flood, the tenants of Malacañang are nebulous about the weather.
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Unlike Noah, who had been warned of the coming flood, the tenants of Malacañang are nebulous about the weather.
The signs of the times are foreboding. Last week, I flew to Manila on an early-morning Cebu Pacific Airlines flight. I left the festive atmosphere prevailing in sunny Davao City with the start of the annual Kadayawan Festival.
Vice President Sara Duterte and her brother, Baste Duterte, the incumbent city mayor, formally opened the grand festival. Foreign dignitaries attended the opening ceremonies. As far as I can remember, this was the first time we had a number of diplomats celebrating with us.
For us Davaoeños, the Kadayawan is in thanksgiving for the enduring unity of all the tribes and pioneers that inhabit this land, and in celebration of the bonanza of blessings that the Almighty has endowed us with. It’s practically a monthlong celebration, and daily there are events to please the eye and your gustatory nerves.
August is when the endemic waling-waling and other orchids bloom, and various fruits like durian, mangosteen and pomelos are in great abundance. By nightfall, food of varied cuisines is served in food courts and on designated sidewalks. If you are lucky, there are “eat-all-you-can” durian stalls. This year’s bestseller is the D101 variety, although there are quite a number of varieties to choose from.
As an aside, Davao City exports fresh durian fruits to China and, recently, to Oman. The export potential of Davao-grown durian is limitless. Former Davao de Oro governor Arturo Uy took a time-out from politics to concentrate on growing various varieties of durian, aiming for at least 30,000 trees. He has been on constant safaris to Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand in search of the best durian varieties. At latest count, he is on his way to becoming the durian king of the Philippines.
Our saba bananas are now also exported to New Zealand. Aside from fruits, the Davao Region also exports fresh and processed tuna to China. Domingo Ang, whose Marina Tuna firm pioneered the export of tuna, is now “farming” exotic marine fish in cages.
The potential is immense that former representative Alan Dujali established hatcheries for freshwater and marine species in Davao del Norte’s second district. The beneficiaries of the project transcend political boundaries, as anyone who wants to go into marine farming may do so.
But back to my flight to Manila. The moment we entered the airspace of Luzon, we were greeted with turbulence. We were hovering above rain clouds. We stabbed through the dense nimbus clouds and, as we approached NAIA, we started to get our share of the copious rain that never ceased for the duration of the five days that we were there. It is still raining as of this writing.
That is about the weather. How Cebu Pacific mistreats its passengers, particularly senior citizens and PWDs, is another story.
The captain announced that due to the unavailability of passenger tubes for domestic flights, we had to be bused in. That meant the ordeal of going down the 45-degree inclined staircase and being jampacked in a bus. Passing by the domestic airport entrance, moreover, we saw several passenger tubes on standby. Meaning that we were hoodwinked into believing that there were none available. We wonder if this is tolerated by NAIA authorities. The weather was bad, and so was the ground service of CebuPac.
Unlike Noah, who had been warned of the coming flood, the tenants of Malacañang are nebulous about the weather that has wrought destruction in Central and Northern Luzon and Metro Manila. As if that is not enough, the rivers, Manila Bay and every waterway have become a gory spectacle of garbage.
We expected emergency meetings to be called by Malacañang after even the protective concrete wall along EDSA collapsed and the recently laid asphalt overlay was eroded. But none so far.
The spokeswoman of President Marcos, who once described the Davao City leadership as “ugaling basura” (like garbage), now not only has truckloads of garbage that the DENR refused to dump in Davao City’s sanitary landfill, she now has tons of garbage in the river near Baclaran Church and the Manila Bay reclamation area in Parañaque City.
Escape the diluvial tsunami of garbage and the unending flood of discontent. You are welcome to sunny Davao City to celebrate with us our Kadayawan Grand Festival.
