26/09/2025
Sharing the powerful piece of my son Miguel titled “Storm Alphabet.” 🌊🌀
From Ondoy to the latest typhoons, the storms keep coming. Yet the bigger storm we face is corruption and negligence that worsen the floods and suffering of our people. Miguel reminds us that true learning is not just memorizing storm names. It is about taking honest and meaningful action so that every disaster becomes a lesson, not just another tragedy! ✊🇵🇭
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Storm Alphabet
Every January, the Philippines begins naming storms that enter the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) using the alphabet, starting with ‘A’. This year, we’ve already reached ‘M’, ‘N’, and ‘O’—three storms just within this month alone. Back in 2009, the number of storms was so high that we exhausted all 25 letters of the official storm name list and had to loop back and use auxiliary names—an extraordinary reminder of the country’s vulnerability to natural hazards.
Today marks the anniversary of Typhoon Ondoy (Ketsana), which tragically claimed at least 464 lives while submerging much of Metro Manila and surrounding areas in historic floods. Ondoy should have been an eye-opener, showing that even the capital is not spared from the dangers of natural hazards—especially flooding.
But the real question remains: did we truly learn from the experience? Instead of becoming an opportunity to improve disaster risk reduction and mitigate future floods, for some, it became an opportunity for personal gain. While investments poured into flood control projects, these efforts became mired in controversy, with allegations of substandard work and widespread corruption. Too often, projects were designed for maximum kickbacks, not maximum impact—a sobering reflection that our responses have not always been driven by the right intentions.
Strangely, the typhoon alphabet is something everyone learns early in life. Yet, when it comes to truly understanding the recurring threats encoded in those names, it seems our collective learning curve and memory is so bad.
True learning means doing better—not just memorizing names, but ensuring that each typhoon teaches us to take meaningful, honest action before the next letter arrives.
ANO NA? TAMA NA! SOBRA NA!
