Another LPA? Just be ready

A Low Pressure Area has reportedly been spotted that is nearing Mindanao. Even as we pray that it will be diverted before it hits our country, we will not lose anything by being prepared. It may be an old, old saying, but it is still true today: An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure. Officials in the most likely to be affected places should, therefore get ready. We have had too many tragic lessons to be complacent.

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Let us not be distracted by the histrionics to be staged in the Senate through the impending impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona. Well, maybe, we can take some of the happenings with a sense of humor, since they are just too funny to ignore. Like the reports that several lawyers are asking the Supreme Court to stop the Senate from starting the Corona hearings on January 16. Just one guess as to how the SC will act on that.

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But one must admire the prosecutors in the House of Representatives for their guts in locking horns with both the Chief Justice and the Senate. The Senate? Well, it seems obvious that several members of that august body are friends of the previous administration and, ergo, must be sympathetic to Corona, as well. I am glad, though, that they are now emphasizing that it is only the Chief Justice who is on trial, and not the Supreme Court itself. It was very clever of his supporters, though, to make it appear that it is the Court itself that is being attacked.

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It would have been very interesting if media still had access to former president Gloria Arroyo so they could ask her for comments on the case of her fair-haired boy, the one for which she had twisted the Constitution to place in office. Now both of them are beleaguered, both facing litanies of charges that they would probably call irrelevant. With their numbers, however, wouldn’t the law of averages come into play, somehow?

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As for the former president and now Congresswoman Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the Sandiganbayan has just issued a hold-order against her that will bar her from leaving the country. And not only her, but also her husband, Mike Arroyo, former Comelec chairman Benjamin Abalos and former Department of Transportation and Communication secretary and former general Leandro Mendoza. This time the charges against them are in connection with that infamous NBN-ZTE transaction that was also a headliner a few years ago.

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The more interesting aspects of this latter charge is that some people who used to be in the same clique as the former president, are now turning witnesses against her. Among those mentioned are Romulo Neri, and, as announced only yesterday, former House Speaker Jose de Venecia. Now these are people who know much of the ins and outs of the previous administration, so their testimonies could be crucial. And expect also the son of De Venecia, Joey, to join the key witness. After all, he was the original whistle-blower, wasn’t he?

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It’s distressing to think about the plight of students in the Sendong-hit areas of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan because they are missing their classes with their schoolhouses now being used as evacuation centers by the victims. And there is no assurance yet that those evacuees can move out soon, their homes having been washed away by the rampaging floodwaters. Some schools are making do with open air classes, but that should be too distracting to the students.

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What about the survivors, and those whose homes had not been destroyed by the floods? Has the local government not thought of requesting those homeowners to allow the use of any extra space in their houses for classes? Even terraces and porches can serve as temporary classrooms, couldn’t they? Aside from keeping up with their classes, thinking of their lessons and being with their classmates will help normalize the lives of the children and erase the traumas faster. But perhaps town and city officials have already thought about this. Let’s hope homeowners will cooperate. God bless them, if they do.*

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