I am too tired to enumerate the chronology of events… what happened though as a summary is what you will be reading next…
As a resident of Cainta for more than three years now, that was the first time our place got flooded. And the flood is 6 ft deep. Flood that brought trauma to lots of people. I still have lots of questions though. As far as I understood it, three dams where simultaneously opened that's why there was sudden rush of water. PAGASA claimed that it was a rain they never expected. Isn't there a rain gauge in the area? The moment something abnormal happens, why didn't they give advise or were they too busy to notice the abnormality? The same goes to opening of dams. They have to wait over night before they could let the water out so that the dam won’t break? Why the heck didn't they let it out gradually when it has passed the normal range of water it can hold?
Moving to the next issue is that this flooding happened around 10 am in Cainta, and in 30 minutes the first floor of our place got submerged. Good thing we were able to bring some of the things upstairs. Minutes later, my neighbors were on to our doors seeking refuge from the flood. 4 families took their refuge with us. That same day our food supply ran out because that was the day my partner and I were supposed to replenish the stocks. Needless to say with 18 people in the house, the food won't suffice. I tried to contact the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) to no avail. Tried contacting Cainta MDCC but was futile too. I still had little faith in the government back then, and I was hoping they could send a rescue team to pull out at least the children in the area as the flood continues to rise. I was also hoping they could send food and water but the whole sat night passed to Sunday and Sunday has ended. Thanks to the forces of nature, no help came our way. No food were given, no rescue came our way. Really we were on the verge of running out of food supply add the fact that drinking water depleted really fast. The sad fact is no government official from the Municipality of Cainta came into our subdivision. It's Villarica subdivision by the way that’s the name of the place. What really pissed me off was that aid for food was given at 2 am of Monday. Imagine the hassle? People are at least trying to sleep to have strength for another day's battle and you will be awaken with relief. It could have really been a relief sadly though there wasn’t enough food. Those neighbors who stayed with us have children so they really went after those barangay officials who gave out relief goods. You know what’s interesting? What was given is a styro of rice, that would be around half cup of rice and SARSARAP as viand. (If you are familiar with Jimmy Santos, SARSARAP is being endorsed by him and this is a sauce that you put on rice so it will have flavor. Great! Where the hell did those funds for emergency disaster go? FYI did you know that each Philippine congressman receives P70 million each year. We have more than 200 legislators in this country. Where the hell are they? I mean those funds? It’s more than enough to send relief or rescue people who are hungry and cold. Gee you can't help but pity those people who have been treated by the government as beggars. By Monday, the water level has subsided and I was able to pull my three kids to safety. As soon as I was able to walk through the flood my partner and I brought them first to an aunt who lives in a 5 storey building. What made my eye lashes batt was on that Monday morning a rescue boat was in front of the guard house of the subdivision. Gee they arrived at last but they were really late because there was no way you could use that freaking rescue boat on water that’s already knee deep. We needed them when the water was neck deep... oh you know who followed after them? Some people wearing camera taking pictures of these People clad in Philippine Army uniforms with the rubber rescue boat on their side. Go sail that freaking boat on an almost dried place! This is how pathetic the Philippine government can get. Up until now, Villarica Subdivision is with out water and electricity.
I know this is a natural calamity, but the reason why there is a government and why budget has been allocated each year is to make sure that when something like this happens the government can help. Most of the help that people received came from private institutions, not from the government. A really sad fact, I am looking at my pay slip right now and it says that P3200 have been taken out from my salary for withholding taxes which will go to government funds but during the time I needed their help, they WERE NOT able to help me out. We just need a freaking rescue boat or at least water that time. It's for those children in our house I am concerned with, not with adults. Those children shouldn't have experience that fear and hunger. I can only do so much and I am not rich to provide them with what they need. That's why I was hoping back then that help could come, but there wasn't any. Is there a way I could take back the taxes they took from me? I am working my ass off but these taxes never work for the way they should work.
