Hoping for cooler weather ahead

CAPILLAS

Yesterday’s rains would hopefully usher in an acceptably long, cooler rainy season for Cebu and the rest of the country.

Thanks to global warming which US President Donald Trump ensured would be a recurrent problem due to his abdication of the Paris Treaty, the weather had been quite unpredictable: drought-like heat one season, super typhoon–class rains in the next.

Personally, the heat along with the humid air and desert-type winds would have been a lot more bearable if there is a stable water supply. But alas, the summer heat also dried up surface water and made life a living urban desert for many Metro Cebu residents.

By “acceptable,” I mean there are a lot of people who aren’t too fond of rains even if they are a welcome respite from the heat. I’m not referring to the Westerners but Pinoys who still welcome summer as the perfect excuse to head off to the beach.

Obviously, they don’t want to deal with the floods which local governments would do a better job of containing if they had adequate clog-free drainage, cleared their waterways of garbage and planted trees to help absorb the rainwater flowing down the mountains.

Anyway, I’m hoping the rainy season would somehow stabilize Metro Cebu’s water supply enough that many households won’t have to spend their nights waiting for water to come dripping steadily out of their stone-dry faucets into their long line of pails and drums.

The state weather bureau Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) says there will be an inter-tropical convergence zone that may result in rains today and the weekend which should make most mornings pleasantly cooler for Metro Cebu residents.

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Another reason I’m hoping for a longer rainy season is the ongoing construction of an underpass project that had resulted in traffic gridlock along Cebu City’s southern gateway specifically along Natalio Bacalso Avenue and F. Llamas Street.

I don’t know about you, but I find traffic somewhat bearable if the weather is cool enough for someone to need extra clothing but not freezing that it would make one’s teeth chatter in the wind.

Since traffic discourages me from traveling outside of my preferred hangouts — and it is tempting to sleep all day when the weather is cold outside — I don’t find the traffic congestion in the south to be problematic.

However, when I learned that the route heading to SM Seaside City would be seriously affected by the traffic congestion, well that sort of put a damper on weekend plans.

Were it not for those air-conditioned MyBus units, going to and heading out of the mall would be a taxing experience. I could only imagine how difficult it is for people from the south or heading to the south to contend with the traffic caused by the underpass project.

Former Cebu City mayor Michael Rama took advantage of public disappointment over the traffic congestion by calling anew for the widening of alternative roads, but unless he can mobilize public support for the initiative — which he can with a radio program at his disposal — his proposal won’t go anywhere.

But it is the failure of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to finish the repairs of the roads that would be used as alternate routes by the passenger jeepneys and motorists that made the traffic dry run unpalatable and inconvenient for the riding public.

Public Works and Highways Secretary Mark Villar should remind his people heading the agency’s regional offices to exert every effort to fully inform the public and stakeholders about the ramifications of their projects to the people instead of letting the local governments do all the work for them.

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A SOCIAL media post involving a New York Times article that detailed how the Russian government crushed the Chechnya rebellion had netizens specifically loyalists of President Rodrigo Duterte wondering if Russia’s strategies can also work against the Maute terrorist group.

The New York Times story detailed how the Russian government kidnapped relatives of suspected rebel leaders and forced them to appeal to the leaders to give up lest they be executed.

This strategy was actually disclosed in a Philippine Daily Inquirer column of Mon Tulfo. In some cases, the relatives even rat or spy on the activities of these rebel or terrorist leaders to enable the military and the police to end a hostage crisis or an ongoing gun battle.

That same article also showed that how this strategy has alienated and polarized families in Russia since family members who aren’t involved with the rebellion or terrorist violence are also detained or executed.

With Islamic State (IS) making known their agenda to create a Islamic caliphate and their uncompromising willingness to kill and destroy, President Duterte didn’t need much persuading to declare that he will also “kill and destroy” the terrorists, maybe even employing the same strategy used by Russia whose president Vladimir Putin he professed a deep admiration for.