Super typhoons hurting agriculture and tourism

Everytime a super typhoon hits the Philippines, hundreds if not thousands of lives are lost, houses are blown away by winds or carried by strong currents of floods, government and private buildings are also destroyed, along with highways and bridges. What we often neglect to see is the millions worth of crops destroyed and the tremendous damage caused on Philippine tourism.

Super Typhoon Egay, and now Falcon have caused so much damage to rice crops about to be harvested, huge losses of livestock, and considerable damages to the irrigation systems, and not to forget the increased susceptibility to diseases to poultry and hogs, thereby exacerbating the tremendous risks of food shortage. The president himself said when he visited Ilocos Norte to inspect the devastation, that he is very much concerned with the impending shortage. Even if we have the money to import rice, Vietnam has already served notice that it would no longer sell rice to us. India has also refused to sell rice. The only remaining source is Thailand but Indonesia is giving the Thais a better deal. The Philippines will turn out to be facing a rice shortage next year.

Since the president insists on remaining as acting secretary of agriculture, he is now facing the big challenge on how to avert the impending famine and food shortage. He should be thinking not only of rice but also of sugar, onions, vegetables and chickens, pork, beef and other food items. There should be no food shortage come Christmas time because if that happens, his political career would be placed in serious jeopardy. By choosing to be an acting cabinet member, the president is creating for himself a big headache that would divert his attention from the bigger concerns in national leadership, like the defense of our national territory, foreign affairs and the administration of justice. The country will face five to ten more typhoons for the rest of the year and the president will have more pressing things to attend to.

On tourism, we expect that by now and even a few days before, the Department of Tourism officials and personnel are trying to determine how many tourists were trapped in the North. Luzon area when Egay hit Cagayan and the Ilocos provinces as well as Abra and Baguio. Can you imagine the trauma that Europeans, Americans and Asians must have gone through while travelling along the Ilocos highway and Egay made landfall in the vicinity? There were a lot of tourists in Baguio and our good friend, Mayor Benjie Magalong was so concerned with the safety and security of tourists. His office was assisting the hotel staff in making arrangements for the evacuation of these tourists to safer grounds and their early and safe travel back to Manila in time to catch their international flights. The Department of Tourism should be doing that.

The tourists will never come back to our country, much less endorse it to other tourists if we do not make them feel protected and cared for during the height of the super typhoon. Some of them are in a hurry to leave because of prior commitments and other important activities. We need to assist them and make things easier for them, airport officials should instruct their personnel not to make things difficult for these people. The typhoon has already caused them panic and worry, the airport personnel should not make things worse. If we cannot do anything to prevent the typhoons from coming, at the very least, we can minimize the negative impact on tourists by making them feel assisted and helped and never abandoned.

I have experienced being in Israel when a major political crisis took place and our embassy officials were all out in helping me and my team. I experienced being in Thailand when a tsunami hit the country but our embassy personnel in Bangkok never left me alone. I was travelling to Chile when a major earthquake shook the country. Their tourism officials and our embassy were helping me and my delegation. That is why I will keep on visiting Israel, Thailand and Chile. Whenever calamities happen, that is the time when compassion should take command and bring hope and light to the beleaguered people.

The Philippines is right in the vortex of the Pacific Ring of Fire. God has placed us in a country where our human compassion should be made to prevail over supertyphoons, earthquakes and all forms of disasters and calamities. Our agriculture and our tourism might have been adversely affected, and always will be. But the hearts of the Filipinos are bound to prevail.