Tag Archives: #NasaanAngPangulo

Missing persons

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The president of the Philippines is nowhere to be found. Insiders say he is abroad for a secret holiday. He left last Friday while Mindanao was drowning. He really doesn’t fucking care. Then he appeared in a Zoom meeting at 2 pm when Mindanao is already underwater and Metro Manila is hammered by strong winds and rain. If he was in the country, he should be in the meeting in person!

Then his disinformation team published photos of him allegedly in Ilocos. These people 🤦🏻‍♀️…The devastation is south!!! Why the heck would the people care if he’s in Ilocos?!

Well it doesn’t even matter. We just want to show the people who voted for him that he doesn’t fucking care. NO EFFORT ON THE GROUND. No plans whatsoever.

Meanwhile, his VP is equally incompetent. Just sent thoughts and prayers and is also nowhere to be found.

Nobody is leading the recovery efforts, nobody is being an adult in the room.

In contrast, the president of South Korea convened an emergency meeting just HOURS after the Itaewon tragedy. Late President Noynoy Aquino cut his official overseas trip short when a similar catastrophe happened.

God, I’m so tired of this situation.

I really, really envy Brazil right now. Lula won over Bolsonaro—kicking out a far-right madman who had plunged Brazil into chaos at the height of the Covid pandemic and caused more damage to the Amazon rainforest. Of course, Bolsonaro came into power with the help of disinformation and social media.

I’m cooling down my anger with some bubbly, savoring the last two days of my holiday. I only have tomorrow to sleep as much as I can before I get inundated again with work.

Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Then I need to drive back to my hometown to deliver my range hood and check the progress of my house this coming Friday. Stay the night there then drive back to NAIA to fetch the girls in the evening.

But I don’t have to think about this yet. I should enjoy the last 24 hours of my holiday. Today I just slept again, cooked one meal, and spent most of my time horizontal on my bed.

Feeding the hungry

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16 packs of 2 kg rice. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Not enough news coverage of the widespread disaster because they killed ABS-CBN. It was the only network with strong provincial coverage. Now it seems like we’re experiencing news blackout and only tweets and FB posts keep us informed by people on the ground, if they have enough batteries and if cellular signal is present. The remaining skeletal news staff of ABS-CBN is still providing us with what they can despite limited bandwidth.

I went out of the house at 5 pm to buy supplies for myself and goods for donation.

I bought a lot of sanitary napkins, travel sized toothpaste, and packs of toothbrushes. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I thought about buying goods instead of sending cash because they are short-staffed and they may not have enough manpower to buy relief goods. The affected areas also may have shortage of goods in grocery stores, just like what we experienced when I was covering Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda). I had to bring my own provisions from Manila because nothing can be bought locally.

Hygiene kits are equally important. As Cong. Joey Salceda told me when I interviewed him right after I got back to Manila from Haiyan Ground Zero, a sense of dignity is important for the refugees’ mental and physical health. Part of that is giving them access to clean clothes and personal hygiene products. Salceda is a veteran of disaster mitigation and response as he led Albay province—one of the most typhoon-prone provinces in the country—to zero fatality score. Albay was also a case study for my sister’s PhD dissertation on climate change adaptation. He is a political whore but local government management-wise, he makes sense…as far as I know. He used to be the chief research analyst at ING-Barings then he entered politics.

Anyway, I went to Ateneo to drop off the donation but… Damn it. I WAS TOO EARLY! Goods are to be accepted Nov 2! They don’t have staff/volunteers now. 🤦‍♀️ Good thing the President of Ateneo took in the goods at his residence.

Well at least I’m done with this because I will be too busy next week.

After Ateneo, I went to UP to feed stray cats with my excess food stranded in my fridge. People had been sending me food all week long for my birthday ❤️. But then it’s only me now left at home so I have a lot of leftovers.

Meat. Lots of it. Kitties are carnivores so they’re loving it. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Photo by CallMeCreation.com

OMG, I’m now officially THE Cat Lady!

I sent the pics to the girls and Twin I said that we should feed cats next week when they come home.

I had fed a white stray dog seeking shelter outside our gate a few days ago 😔 Poor dog. I wonder where he went during the storm 😢

This is what my friend TT had been telling me. I’m too much of an empath. Ah well, I have enough space in my heart for this type of thing. ❤️

Disaster fatigue

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I’m taking a break from disaster news. I know I’m very privileged to have this opportunity to tune out while millions of Filipinos are struggling without water, food, and shelter. During times like this, we miss ABS-CBN because they have the widest reach nationwide via their regional stations. They are the first in the field whenever we have calamities like this, bringing news nationwide. Now it’s like we have a news blackout and only we get live feed via FB live from VP Robredo since she has been on the ground after Typhoon Odette passed through Visayas and Mindanao. Duterte deprived the Filipinos of this link just because of his pettiness.

Chibi Rurouni Kenshin. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I received this chibi action figure for Christmas. I searched high and low in Akihabara for any Rurouni Kenshin items when I was there in 2017 but couldn’t find any. According to my colleague in our Tokyo office, stores in Akihabara sell merchandise from anime currently on air. They do have old stuff like Pokemon and Dragon Ball to cater to foreign tourists but Rurouni Kenshin is considered niche for vendors.

Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I grilled these for lunch today, part of my stash that I’ve been keeping in my new larger freezer. I have several kilos of wagyu beef that I will grill on New Year. The girls will be flying with their dad to his hometown on Wednesday so I’ll just save the grand cooking on New Year’s Eve.

After this we ran some errands and had late lunch/early dinner at Max’s.

Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Arroz caldo for me this rainy day.

Photo by CallMeCreation.com

After the girls leave tomorrow night (their flight is 6 am Wed), I may consider volunteering for relief ops in Robredo’s campaign center along Katipunan. They really need help given the devastation that the typhoon wrought in Vis-Min area.

Central and Southern Philippines need us

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This is reminiscent of Typhoon Haiyan, a Category 5 typhoon that ravaged central Philippines in 2013. I covered the disaster and drove down to ground zero where there was so much death and destruction. I had PTSD after that coverage and it is known in the journalism community that covering disasters is also like being in a war zone. It messes up your brain.

We did our grocery shopping tonight for our household and for the victims of Typhoon Odette (which became Cat 5 upon landfall in Siargao). I bought boxes of Century Tuna, boxes of instant cup noodles, boxes of rubbing alcohol, packs of 3-in-1 coffee, sachets of shampoo and toothpaste, bottles of mineral water.

Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Based on my experience covering disasters, victims in evacuation sites do not have the means to cook. At most all they may have are sources of hot water so ready-to-eat stuff like canned tuna and cup noodles are best during the first few days after a disaster. Hygiene kits are also important. Clean water is also a priority.

Then the girls and I went straight to Leni Robredo Volunteer Center to drop off our donations.

Some of our donations. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Sacks of rice. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Volunteer orientation. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
My girls. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I couldn’t volunteer because Ate C already left for Tacloban today and her grandpa’s house was destroyed by the typhoon so she needed to be there to help in rebuilding it. Although the girls could already fend for themselves, I fear accidents may happen like microwaving metallic objects 🤦🏻‍♀️

They wouldn’t push through with the trip to their paternal grandpa given the dire situation in Visayas. They don’t have power there because a lot of transmission lines are down. Many vehicles are stranded at the ports and the seas are still violent. Cebu and Siargao airports are destroyed. I fear for a friend in Cebu, I hope he and his family are ok.

Bohol is devastated. No clear idea how Panglao is now but that island is so flat that I expect that everything was washed out. My heart breaks for that little paradise.

Panglao island. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I will be donating again after my salary is deposited before Christmas.

https://www.instagram.com/therealangellocsin/p/CXlmz6QlFYf/?utm_medium=copy_link

Sick

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My girls are fine and now I got that nasty flu. Worse than what they had. I started having series of fevers last night and continued until today. I couldn’t file for sick leave because we’re out of one or two editors today and there were so many stories. I managed to file one story based from the round table discussion I attended yesterday.

It’s suicide, I know.

In between work I slept. Taking flu tablets and slept some more. I’m isolating because I don’t want to take chances.

The telemedicine stuff that they advertise? They’re a fluke. KonsultaMD is like a call center for doctors and you wait for a looooong time before you can get connected. With so many people sick these days, it’s a miracle that you can get through.

If I don’t get better tomorrow, I’ll drive myself to a drive-and-swab center. One app I was about to try for Covid test swab requires at least two pax. Annoying. RT-PCR tests are not cheap.

Oh wait, I can’t. I have an interview tomorrow. 🤦🏻‍♀️ No rest for the weary.

Meanwhile, I’ve ordered my meds through Mercury online and there’s one branch less than 300m from me. But guess what? It’s already almost 9 pm and they haven’t processed my orders yet that I will have my househelp claim for me in that branch. Why don’t big companies invest in IT? It’s like an afterthought for them. I ran out of cash because I sent my househelp to buy vegetables and eggs with the last cash in my wallet. So the only way I can buy medicines is through online means. And it’s a mess. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Like everything in this country is a mess.

This is Duterte’s latest public address in a nutshell.

Meanwhile, shameless Bong-bong Marcos…

I ought to be packing my bags and move to New Zealand.

Killing us one by one

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During Aquino’s term, I’ve never heard of anybody being sacked for doing the right thing. Even if one is being critical of government. I also wrote some analysis pieces and spot reports that had been critical of Aquino’s administration but I’ve never felt I was in danger.

This Duterte administration is so insecure, so afraid of a dead man that social media trolls are working doubly hard these days. Mainstream media like GMA is killing its own.