What had happened...

Being caught up in the upcoming, long holidays last month, I tried to stray away from the papers. I told myself that if I am up to enjoying my time, might as well remove myself from peeking into the broadsheets.

Right now, I have to catch up with these papers and I was pretty shocked to learn tragedies abound before and during the joyous holidays. It brought me gloominess to emphatize to the families of the casualities of the event. How were they able to survive the merry-making around them when in fact, they were mourning for their dear loss? It was such a pity.

A> The Leyte and Surigao landslides happened a week before the Christmas season. I do not remember how many hundreds or thousands of lives and properties were lost but it gave me chills down through my spine. I even heard over the radio that Barangay Punta which was the hardest hit of them all may be turned into a cemetery because the residents refuse to return there anymore.

B> A water vessel sank in stormy seas last Dec21 while on its way to Brookes Point in Palawan. ML Piary, a 69-ton wooden-hulled vessel was carrying more than its capacity and it was an old boat, dingy and with very poor accommodations. A number of people are still missing.

C> Bombings in Baghdad which were related to the declaration of major hostilities by the US President Bush.

D> A 6.5 magnitude earthquake shook the Los Angeles State to San Francisco in California. There were 2 fatalities.

E> Another quake measuring 6.3 in magnitude had turned the city of Bam into rubble [Bam is a city of 80,000 people, situated in southeast, Iran]. The death toll could reach 40,000 is beyond imagination but the possibility is great. Foreign rescue teams rush everywhere in the city in search of survivors.

F> Mudslides in 2 camps in the San Bernardino Mountains during Christmas Day. A downpour fell on hillsides that sent a terrifying torrent of soil, tree trunks and boulders. A number of people were injured, found dead and missing.

G> Death by accidental fall of a local young actor, Miko Sotto from the 9th floor of a high-rise condominium where he lived last Dec29.

H> More than 20 fires reduced people's lives and properties to ashes.

On the other hand, politics in the Philippines is really one hell of a kind. As much as it was fun listening to the charade of bolting to one political party to another, I felt shame for these so-called leaders of our country. Why do they have to trasnfer to one party to another? Of course, behind that act is self-interest. As far as I know, when you join one party, you must adhere to its principles and as much as possible, stick to it and the party itself. This mode has long been practiced in other countries. I just wish our political system will mature into a serious one and not into one big circus.