blackshama's commentary on Philippine issues

The Philippine Daily Inquirer writes an op ed Sodden welcome about the La Nina enhanced Easterlies that have been wrecking havoc on the eastern seaboards of the region even into Australia. Queensland, Australia is now experiencing floods which its non-believer Prime Minister Julia Gillard described as of "biblical proportions" Gillard has personally seen the disaster which now has shut down Brisbane. While the Sydneysiders and Melburnians are hundreds of kilometres from the flood zone, all my mates from those cities don't think they won't get flooded. They are concerned. The PDI complains that the Manila-centric Noynoy administration has not shown the requisite urgency in dealing with the matter. Mr Noynoy Aquino has yet to set foot or fly over flood stricken Southern Leyte or even in nearer Albay. If he had, the press didn't get wind of it and neither have we seen the press photos. Mrs Arroyo steps into a disaster zone, I think it is Malacanang P...

Buendia during Ondoy? No Orchard Road last June 16! Photo credits from http://www.about-knowledge.com/orchard-road-flood/ Typhoon Ondoy (Ketsana) will be memorable for me since it flooded my house and sending my techie gadgets to the computer in the sky. Also I was trapped in Quezon City, at a charismatic church where I helped evacuees get some assistance with three medical students from UERM medical school who were to report for duty in the hospital, but couldn't. By then UERM hospital was up to its second floor in flood. The polluted San Juan River burst its banks.  I could not forget the long line of schoolchildren with drums and bugles as they were in school for a show when the flood struck and sank their school. But many people lost more in terms of property and worse in lives.  While damaged houses can be repaired, IPods, flat screen TVs and Digicams can be replaced by "cooler" models, a human life lost to the floods cannot be replaced. The blurbs today mark th...

Give up on the hero? No! the international airport (NAIA) that is. The recent spate of flight diversions, cancellations and delays have brought into attention the state of the Philippines' foremost international gateway and domestic flight hub. It also has brought more attention to changes in our climate patterns. How come we still haven't felt much of the monsoon? The Ninoy Aquino International Airport now handles 24.1 million passengers annually with 205K aircraft movements. The airport has 4 terminals but it has only two runways (one 2.25 km long and the other 3.73 km long). That the airport has only two runways and has no room for expansion places a limit on future air traffic growth. All airport experts agree that the airport is now in a state of air traffic and passenger congestion. Terminal 1 was designed only for 4.5 M passengers a year. Terminal 2 (used exclusively by PAL) has a 9.5 M capacity, Terminal 3 (used by Cebu Pacific and AirPhilExpress) has a 13 M capacity...