A lesson from the super typhoon: Protect our mountain ranges

Tributes to the Sierra Madre Mountain Range — stretching more than 500 kilometers from Cagayan in the north to Quezon in the south — filled social media after Super Typhoon Uwan's feared devastation turned out to be less severe than expected.

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Nearly 1.5 million people were evacuated ahead of Uwan's landfall. Schools and offices were closed, homes secured, and disaster teams placed on full alert. As Uwan's rainbands, spanning nearly a thousand kilometers, swept across the country, the nation braced for another catastrophic storm.

But once again, the Sierra Madre — long regarded as the "backbone of Luzon" — stood as our natural defense. According to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), Uwan weakened from a super typhoon to a typhoon after making landfall over Aurora and crossing the mountain range.