Coping with the bad weather

By Herbert Vego

THERE’S always a way to cope with bad weather. As a senior citizen, I opted to curl up in bed early yesterday morning while hearing the news updates on typhoon Fabian (international name: In-fa) still battering the country even  while on the way out. A storm surge had inundated scores of seaside homes in Iloilo City and the adjacent town of Oton.

If it was any consolation, the flood waters in the Philippines were insignificant when compared to those in China – said to be the worst in a thousand years – that smashed and wrecked thousands of homes and motor vehicles in Zhengzhou province.

I must confess, however, that I get nervous whenever rains pour longer than usual. It’s when I always remember typhoon Frank that devastated Iloilo City on June 18, 2008 with six-foot floods. Frank robbed me of my camera, books and an old typewriter.

I am not surprised whenever other typhoon victims self-deprecate, “This is our karma for knowingly polluting the environment with garbage that obstructs the free flow of rain water to the sea.”

The Lord seems responsible for fires, floods, tsunami, earthquakes and many other natural disasters that are inappropriately called “acts of God”.  It is a misnomer because it paints the picture of man struggling to survive God’s punishment through nature.

It is also wrong to say, “God would never give us a problem we are unable to solve.” That would make God a sadist.

More positively appropriate would be, “God gave us the capacity to surmount problems.” It comes closer to the famous expression, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”

Typhoons are not our only blight. The Philippines lies on the so-called Pacific ring of fire, making it prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity, too.

One vital lesson that any natural disaster teaches us is “equality” between the rich and the poor. Both may lose everything and suddenly find themselves on equal footing. There are even instances when the poor are better-equipped to cope, simply because they are already familiar with hard times. On the other hand, the rich stand to lose more than the poor who have nothing in the first place.

It does not always pay to depend on government assistance. I know of a relative who insured his rice crop with the government-run Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC). But when he lost his harvest to typhoon, all he got from PCIC was a refund of the cost of seeds and fertilizer. To survive, he had to apply for a bank loan thereafter, and so was at risk of losing his entire farm.

Another lesson is that we should always prepare for tomorrow’s disaster, even if today’s weather is fine. It is a “given” that disaster victims with reserve wealth – money in the bank, for instance – recover faster. Those with no immediate prospect of bouncing back because they have lost everything, including their only source of income, face a blank wall. They could be so desperate as to commit suicide.

That’s ironic though, since fear of death is universally regarded as the most natural reason why we dread natural disasters.

It’s scary to even imagine that people who are supposed to rest on their laurels, having retired and are tired of any more work, may suddenly lose everything they have to natural disasters. Imagine a farmer who loses what could have been a bountiful rice harvest to “act of God.” He suddenly falls back to poverty – if not under the ground for eternal rest.

On the positive side, he comes to terms with this “punishment” as a wake-up call. It alerts him into realizing that he is not the owner but mere temporary custodian of God’s good earth.

The Bible in in Exodus 19:5 says, “For all the earth is mine.”

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MORE POWER REPORTS EXPANDED CUSTOMER BASE

FROM 62,000 electricity users, MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power) has expanded its customer base to almost 85,000 in its one year and five months of operation as the sole distribution franchisee for Iloilo City.

MORE Power President Roel Z. Castro traces the phenomenon to affordability and accessibility of power. As this corner stressed in a previous column, the power bill for the current month of July would show a drastic reduction in residential rate at P6.45 per kilowatt-hour – plummeting from the P10 June rate for a big savings of P3.55. The P6.45 rate is probably the lowest in the entire Philippines.

Power pilferage has been minimized with the company’s openness in allowing the less fortunate to apply for legal connection with only a few requirements. It is now possible to apply for a new account for only a bill deposit P2,500, which may be paid on installment basis.

The 24 families occupying modest but concrete homes at Barangay Lanit (Jaro district) are energized.  With the income earned from raising and selling vegetables and livestock, among others, they managed to pay four thousand pesos for their bill deposit. For being “lifeline customers,” each of them spends only more or less ten pesos for more or less 20 kilowatt-hours.

The transition from PECO to MORE on February 29, 2020 was not smooth due to legal issues arising from the former’s non-recognition of the franchise law (RA 11212).  The latter had to go to the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) for the list of active power customers.

There used to be 30,000 illegal connections that were responsible for system’s loss. By successfully converting them into paying customers, this loss has been minimized.

The usual misconception is that the distribution utility (DU) amasses so much profit from its customers that it can sustain temporary losses. But the truth of the matter is that it gets only around 17 percent of the payments collected.

The lion’s share of 60% goes to generation charges payable to power generators, 11% to VAT, 5.5% to system’s loss and 3% t0 subsidies and universal charges.