Year of the fugitives, falling out

Almost drowned out by all the political noise and dangerous maneuvers in the high seas was the landslide that killed around a hundred people in the small mining town of Maco, Davao de Oro in early February.

- By JUANIYO ARCELLANA

The tragic incident was said to be a result of continuous rains from a shear line and foundational weakening of the soil, possibly due to nearby mining operations, with a good number of the dead from an indigenous group, including miners on a bus waiting for a ride home.

Developments that hogged the headlines in the next several months, more riveting storylines that caught public attention, might have buried the memory of Maco a second time. Among which was the long drawn acrimonious breakup of the muchtouted UniTeam, the equally serial search for fugitives from the law that ranged from a Tarlac mayor with a shadow of doubt on her citizenship, to a disgraced evangelist in Davao suspected of sexual shenanigans, not to forget repeated run-ins with the Chinese coast guard in the country’s exclusive economic zone replete with water cannoning, blinding lasers and a lost thumb.

It wasn’t just sound and fury, but also cheers and exultation with the double gold haul of Olympic gymnast Carlos Yulo in the Paris games, first in the vault then in the general floor exercise, netting him a deserved windfall from assorted sponsors and corporate sports aficionados, and elaborate homecoming parades with an estranged family on the sidelines.

There were the successive storms and typhoons in the fourth quarter, late October into November, that ran some six letters in the alphabet: Kristine, Leon, Marce, Nika, Ofel and Pepito, displacing thousands and damaging billions worth of agriculture produce and infrastructure, with the eastern seaboard and northern provinces as well as Bicol and parts of Mindanao alternately bearing the brunt, as Metro Manila was largely spared except for the wrath of Kristine and Carina earlier in July.