The specter of El Niño, the strongest in five decades, as scientists have so warned, is still to seep into the consciousness of many. While the national government has boldly asserted that it is preparing for its effect, and that state agencies are taking steps to address it, we do not feel palpable measures being done at the local government level to address the dire situation.
This is alarming as the LGUs are and should be the frontliners in preparing the constituents to craft steps to minimize the brunt of El Niño, climate change and disasters. An ill-prepared LGU is a foreboding of more disasters, definitely due this time to man-made inaction and incompetence.
The El Niño phenomenon should be understood by all to be able to manage our response accordingly.
“Typically, it comes around every five years and what usually happens is that warming in the oceans caused by the winds leads to diffusion of this warming all over the globe. It changes atmospheric pressures with consequences for rainfall, wind patterns, sea surface temperatures and can sometimes have a positive, and sometimes a negative effect on those systems.” (https://www.environmentalscience.org/el-nino-la-nina-impact-environment)
It is said that “Fishermen off the west coast of South America were the first to notice appearances of unusually warm water that occurred at year’s end. The phenomenon became known as El Niño because of its tendency to occur around Christmas time. El Niño is Spanish for ‘the boy child’ and is named after the baby Jesus.” (https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Marine/El-Nino)
While different in magnitude and duration, El Niño in the past inflicted losses and destruction especially in agriculture, the hardest-hit sector. Its impacts vary in different areas. It brings warmer temperature, reduced rainfall, stronger typhoons and their corresponding impacts to water and marine resources, livelihoods and health, among others.
Typhoon Lando’s heavy rainfall in Luzon, on a positive note, was seen as helpful in easing off the effects of El Niño as several water dams will be filled up. (GMA News Online, October 17, 2015)
In contrast to the lack of attention given the looming disaster from El Niño, the candidacy of personalities vying for the sought-after elective posts for the executive and legislative branches has, as always, elicited top-notch interest from the public and media.
The circus, as they say, has started.
The cast includes the perennial nuisance aspirants hugging the temporary limelight in having the same names as the more known candidates, the growing number of members of the political dynasties seeking to occupy the top posts in the local governance landscape, and in certain instances, vying for the same position and the falling out among party members as well. Who can also forget the attention-getting twists and turns of actions titillating the public on the question whether or not a mayor will run for the most coveted position in the land?
Definitely, “La Campania” has more vibrant aficionados than the somber life-and-death issues such as climate change and El Niño. But, as in anything, they are inter-related. Those elected and the people have to deal with the issues, sooner, not later.
It is a positive development indeed that the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) developed the Climate Information Center (CIC) project that allows the agency and local government units (LGUs) to collaborate and explain scientific information, such as El Niño, to local farmers in communities and should include the fisherfolk as well in the future.
The League of Organic Agriculture Municipalities (LOAM) and non-government organization Rice Watch and Action Network (R1) have also urged PAGASA “to mobilize its regional staff and offices to work with Municipal Weather and Climate Information Centers and provide training to concerned LGU staff on the nature, interpretation and applications of weather and climate information generated.”
More LGUs should already collaborate with PAGASA regarding the project and capacitate themselves and their constituents in using the information and integrate them in their vulnerability assessments and management plans. Tomorrow is too late.
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The 2015 Bar examinations take place on the four Sundays of November in Manila, as it has been since. This reminds us of the continuing struggle by proponents of the decentralization of the Bar examination in convincing the Supreme Court to reconsider the plight of those who cannot afford to stay in Manila for the month-long exams.
The University of Cebu College of Law Dean Baldomero Estenzo and other law school Deans in the Visayas filed a petition in the Supreme Court in 2010 to allow the Bar examinations in regional centers such as Cebu, asserting the equal-protection clause of the Constitution and the difficult financial, psychological and emotional adjustments that the barristers from the Visayas and Mindanao are subjected to in having to temporarily relocate to Manila for the licensure examination for lawyers. National and local lawmakers have passed resolutions supporting the proponents.
The Supreme Court posits budgetary constraints and the integrity of the examination process as justifications for not changing the rules. However, it may be noted that other disciplines under the jurisdiction of the Professional Regulation Commission such as engineering, medicine and nursing have long regionalized the system for taking the examinations.
Hopefully, someday, the push for a regionalized Bar examinations will bear fruits, considering further that climate change has exacerbated the built-in disadvantages for the examinees living outside Metro Manila.