Suddenly water abundance is left and right. Typhoon named “Habagat” is here to stay dumping million and millions of rain in our province Benguet. Suddenly we are again vulnerable to disaster waiting in ambush anytime of the day, not anymore monopolized by the darkness of the night, nor during the wee hours before morning glory. A case in point is the accident that happened in that part of the historic and famous Kennon Road where two lives were claimed by the sudden rampage of stones, soil, dirt and trees, and a score of injured kababayans while enroute to the rained-soaked City of Pines. Thanks but no thanks to Typhoon “Habagat.”
*** ***
However, lest I will get the ire of our hardworking weather forecasters at PAGASA-DOST, be clarified that “Habagat” is no typhoon after all. This weather disturbance, cycle or phenomenon, whichever you want it to be called, or locally known as “nepnep,” is a boon and a bane to many depending on one’s geographical location. For us here in the mountains, it is definitely a bane or a nuisance. Well, simply because if it is an extended “Habagat,” that means you have to be confined in your home, boarding house, or room as you do not want to be wet and add to your woes or inconvenience.
*** ***
In fact it would so inconvenient for you to report for work, do grocery, or go to the palengke. And if you are a student, you wish that the local officials will immediately, and more often, issue an edict to suspend classes. And if you are a parent, if the kids have no classes then be prepared to double or even triple the food budget. They will surely obliterate all edible things inside the fridge, the cabinets, and even the hidden cabinets! That is a good way to pacify the kids while in the house. And that would be straining further your overstretched budget for the week!
*** ***
And the most hard part of it for the machas (read: housewives) and of course for the machos (read: “[K]anadians” – from the root word “Canadian), is how to get the laundry dry quickly. Extended “Habagat” would definitely ruin your day because when the laundry are not dried up quickly it will smell foul and you would wash them again. Nagrigat ti agpamaga ti linabaan especially when you have no drier machine. Well, there are more inconveniences “Habagat” brings to us. The danger of landslides, road cuts, and flash floods are always there. And before I forget, our little “La Presa” garden is no match to Habagat. Poor La Presa, poor cabbages, kankong, eggplant, strawberry, and others!
*** ***
But if there are people who are rejoicing because of Habagat, these are the farmers-kababayans in the lowlands, like in La Union, Pangasinan, Nueva Ecija/Vizcaya, and in Ilocos and Cagayan provinces. Why? It is simply because they can now rush to prepare the farm to be transplanted with rice. I would remember that in such season back in my younger years, my Tatang Sabas would always command me to go with him to the farm and help in whatever I can, like uprooting young rice seedlings to be transplanted to the portion of the farm that he prepared. My father would always end up arguing with my Nanang Ettang that because of my young age and my body built I should not yet be required to help in the farm yet. Yeah, my mom was already a staunch defender against “child labor” then. I am somewhat happy everytime I hear mom argue against hard labor for me. Sometimes, my father relents and let me stay in the house with my mother and other female siblings. That was the time when I learned also almost all the ropes inside the house.
*** ***
Now, back to the planting of rice, in the area of the young rice seedlings, it is usually full of water and one cannot help but to sit or squat and be soaked with so many water, otherwise, one will end up with aching waist while standing. Soaking your lower torso in water would even last for four to five hours or even more depending how early would be the food to come from the house. If you feel like to pee then you just have to let it go! We call the process of uprooting the rice seedlings as “panag-sikka.” Then the seedlings should be immediately transplanted (“i-ra-ep”) by the experts. I tried the transplanting then but because I was just learning the trade, I was so slow and would end up blocked by the fast and furious planters. Before I can finish an area of about two square meters, my Tatang Sabas and my brother Odi, were already far from me and I would have to squeeze myself to proceed to another area. But when I learned the trade covering my areas in almost the same time as the experts, I would always savour the feeling of fulfilment of waiting for the rice to be harvested in four to five months.
*** ***
Indeed the rains brought by Habagat should simply be welcomed with anticipation, not only as something that brings misery to us, a matter that is usually checked and neutralized by our state of preparedness. If only the government agency that is responsible in the road rehabilitation in Kennon Road would have anticipated the enormous risk in the area with saturating rains, then said fatal incident would have been avoided. Lives and limbs need not be sacrificed. Instead, preparation should be the key.
*** ***
As I was about to finish this deadline, I got a call by our Emergency Preparedness Team to attend immediately a caucus regarding the effect of Typhoon Habagat in our Padcal Mine. I must go, until then!
