Flooded by corruption

If we are to rely on the weather forecast of our state-run Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), there will be at least six more tropical cyclones to visit our country before the end of this year.

- MARICHU A. VILLANUEVA

The first two, PAGASA announced last Friday, are expected to enter this month the Philippine area of responsibility, or PAR for short.

We just had one after the other "severe tropical storms" named "Kristine" and "Leon" as the 11th and 12th typhoons this year that entered the PAR. According to PAGASA, our country experiences an average of 20 typhoons each year, with about eight or nine of them crossing the Philippine landmass.

Fortunately, the last two cyclones weakened and did not reach the level of "super typhoon" after making landfall in our country. The term "super typhoon" is used when a typhoon's sustained surface-wind strength reaches 240 kilometers (150 miles) per hour, the equivalent of a strong category 4 or category 5 hurricane. We could only be thankful to God in giving our archipelagic country its natural defenses like the Sierra Madre mountain range in Luzon.

Our PAGASA weather specialists noted the peak of our typhoon season is from July through October, during which period nearly 70 percent of all typhoons develop. The PAGASA website states: "The Philippines is prone to tropical cyclones due to its geographical location which generally produce heavy rains and flooding of large areas and also strong winds which result in heavy casualties to human life and destruction to crops and properties. Thus, it is of utmost importance to have sufficient knowledge on such maritime phenomena for beneficial purposes."

With such certainty and predictability of our weather condition, mass casualty events during typhoons still occur in our country.