Why does it seem that Philippine government units always seem to be caught off guard by weather disturbances these days? Is there a problem with the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration when it comes to its weather forecasting prowess, or the problem more with information dissemination?
Whatever the case, it seems that the announcement for class and work suspensions are always last minute these days, and most of the time, quite inaccurate. Another thing that is strange is that the government officials responsible for making the decisions don’t even seem to have any basis anymore.
Back in the day, it was far more simple. A typhoon signal number came with corresponding suspensions for school or work. Signal number 1 meant preschool and grade school classes were going to be suspended, 2 was for high school, and 3 for college and maybe workers, who being adults, were very rarely sent home.
These days, even with no typhoon signals being raised, classes can still be suspended and even government workers sent home. Is this an effect of climate change or is government policy just changing? Is the climate becoming harsher or is the famously resilient Filipino becoming softer?
Whatever the case, it really seems that government needs to review whatever system it has for declaring the suspension of classes and work, because the lack of one is really quite confusing. If the old typhoon signal system has been rendered obsolete and outdated by climate change, then what is PAGASA waiting for? Is it capable of coming up with a better and more responsive system, or is it waiting for its forecasting capabilities and equipment to be upgraded first?
Furthermore, if we are expecting the weather to be harsher in the coming years, then are we going to be content with sending school kids and workers home more often, or should our cities’ infrastructure and public transport system be made more weather proof instead? Since most sidewalks are already borderline unwalkable already, and the jeepney sector is being forced to some sort of cut rate “modernization”, can the effects of a changing climate be included in any or all “upgrades” of the public works and transportation that our public officials should be at the forefront of?
Unfortunately, these societal weatherproofing matters cannot be solved by breaking and pouring more concrete, which is the go to solution of most government officials these days, so the people we vote into power might have to dig a little bit deeper in order to face this concern. More shade, hopefully from the creative and practical use of greenery rather than concrete and steel solutions, should be an option, if you ask me. This will allow our sidewalks to be used better, whether it is sunny or rainy, so that if and when a better system for predicting the weather and deciding when to suspend school or work is already in place, people can still get to where they need to go, safely, efficiently, and conveniently. If they must stay home due to extreme weather events, then the appropriate warnings should’ve already been raised beforehand.
Either way, our current tendency to suspend classes at the slightest hint of rain or wind doesn’t seem to be a sustainable strategy, especially in a country already suffering from a learning crisis, and when we all know that the changing climate unfortunately means more chances of poor weather in the long term.
POWER WATCH
So, the new power company announced early this week that it had already installed a new transformer to replace the one that failed.
The old one, a 13-year-old, 37 MVA transformer, which should have a service life of 20-30 years, is said to have failed prematurely because it was apparently overloaded most of the time by the poorly-managed CENECO, the old cooperative that just can’t seem to get its act and finances together, so it had to be sold via JVA.
However, this new transformer has me wondering just how much better the new guys are than CENECO. The reason is that according to news reports, they got a brand new 18 MVA transformer to replace an “overloaded” 37 MVA one. I’m not an electrical engineer, but the math doesn’t sound right, especially given the claim that the old one died of apparent misuse due to overloading. Maybe their suki supplier didn’t have a properly-sized one in stock, so they just got the one that was on sale, with overnight shipping?
Anyway, it is literally none of our business anymore, since we no longer have a part in that particularly profitable venture. According to the praise releases, they are going to spend a whopping P2B on upgrades that should make our lives better. However, if you ask me, based on their chosen solution to their inaugural major power outage, it doesn’t seem to build a lot of confidence so far.
For now, all we can do, especially those who live in the Alijis area who had to endure days of power problems, is wait and see if the new guy will actually deliver as advertised. That is the beauty of having a new guy around, especially if they themselves set high expectations to justify their takeover of our cooperative.*
