Floods, rats and buwayas

This is getting to be a more frequent pattern.

- Cherry Piquero-Ballescas

Even just a few hours of rain, then floods, thousands of commuters/vehicles stranded, unpassable streets, highways, and more.

Everyone seems to accept these scenarios as givens, as part and parcel of our wet history as a nation.

Our Filipino people are described as resilient, enjoying the floods in their own ways - have you seen FB posts of one jetskiing through the floods, groups cheerfully rowing makeshift “sofa” or other floating “rafts”, one couple even pushing through with their wedding inside a flooded church?

“Onli en de Pilipins” where floods are enjoyed in cities rather than cursed?

No, not true for all Filipinos.

Our farmers who lose their crops, our fisherfolks unable to go out to fish, students, teachers, laborers kept away from schools and work are not among those “resilient” that find joy and entertainment with floods.

Many of those who gleefully wallowed and played in the floods may now be sorry for their temporary entertainment.

The Department of Health warned about the increase in the number of Leptospirosis transmitted by the leptospira bacteria to humans through contact with water, food or soil contaminated by the urine of infected animals like rats.