Watching the Marikina River swell as rains continued to pour, I grew apprehensive for the people who lived on its other side.
The sight of the fast-moving water and the flurry of people’s activities kept me to the window of our house, not wanting to lose sight of the imminent disaster.
Five years ago, “habagat” brought the same effects not only to Marikina, but to other cities and provinces as well. There was also Tropical Storm “Ondoy” in 2009.
We thought we have learned a lot. Unfortunately, we seem to have accepted that this is our lot, our fate.
We can conveniently blame our elected officials, the rampant corruption in many government agencies, mining and quarrying activities, improper garbage management and disposal, to name a few. But each one of us could have done something to prevent
all of these tragedies from happening.
We need a revolution. We need to rise up as one people, but how?
Maybe President Duterte can declare a “cleanup and segregation week” requiring every family, rich and poor, to participate, starting in their own backyard.
Local leaders should be able to come up with programs on how to go about this cleanup revolution.
Is this a crazy idea? Who knows, maybe this can trigger an inward awakening if we stop being cynical.
JENNIFER B. DAVID, farfaraway@yahoo.com