After the Elections

PAGASA, I thought, you declared that it’s already rainy season. Then, why is it so horribly humid. Even in the early morning, as the national anthem echoes from the nearest public school, I can feel the dense, thick air hovering with the intense heat so close to my face. Uniform, be hanged. I have to take off my polo and leave my thin undershirt to avail myself of a little convenience. Whoever told you that the rainy season would be less hot. Yes, it would rain, but no one said that it would not be hot anymore. After all, the seasons in the Philippines are the dry season and wet season. Dry season’s done and we’re in the wet season, but they seem to be terribly hot all throughout. Well, except for a few months from December to February. So, they say, schools went back to starting on June to avoid the extreme heat on April and May. Did they really avoid the heat or just ended up with something very similar. Actually, the difference between the dry and wet season is the dry ness or wetness, or the absence or presence of rain. Whatever the season, it’s still hot. From early morning to late afternoon, and even through the night, it’s hot and it’s hot. Did I forget to mention that it’s hot. My forehead has become a fountain of flowing sweat non-stop.

As if the curse of tropical heat and humidity is not enough, we are treated to day-long power outages. In some areas, there would be intermittent brownouts sometime during the day, and late at night. What’s the deal, CASURECO? Are your dermis glands numb or something. Even if you work in fully-air conditioned offices and go home to fully air-conditioned homes, you would still feel the horrendous heat. The metal that encases your cars would absorb that extreme energy from the sun.

Isn’t the purpose of road widening to provide a thoroughfare with smooth, continuous vehicular traffic? That purpose is defeated when drivers have to watch the roads to avoid the electric posts which were left standing a good distance from the side of the street. Aren’t you supposed to clean up your mess after your work is done? If not, your work isn’t really done yet. So, maybe, that’s someone else’s turf already and the guys who widened the road are not authorized to move the posts, but they could have talked with the people who did, rather than just leave them there like that. It looks simply ridiculous. A tourist passing by would think, ‘why did they erect electric posts right smack in the middle of the road for drivers to avoid? Is this their weird idea of excitement?”.

Now, the agencies who should be taking care of this problem are scrambling to fix it; and we’re made to pay for it with day-long power outages in the middle of horribly, horrendously hot and humid days. Now, you know why there are too many window shoppers at SM. They should have fixed that electric post problem immediately after the road widening project. They should have not waited for a new mayor to tell them to do so. Are we children who would clean up our mess only after our mother tells us to do so? So, I guess, that’s an effect of the post-elections period. It’s bad that it would be causing inconvenience on top of an already existing inconvenience. But, it’s good that it’s finally getting fixed. With all that taken into consideration, that’s good. Just bring the power back as soon as you could.

Still on post-election matters, remember that area where a certain candidate held free concerts for several times? Well, since the area is vacant and it’s right in the middle of multiple schools, it would be a profitable idea to put up businesses there. So, vendors did. In fact, many vendors did that it looked like a trade fair there. Just recently, the vendors have been evicted by of course, the person or representatives of the person who actually own or have the rights to that plot of land. So, the vendors who invested on their stalls (which isn’t cheap money) had to scramble to transfer to other areas that would still be strategically moneymaking. Then, the vacant lot is back to being a vacant lot. I guess, for some powerful people, that’s better. Couldn’t they have worked out some deal that would be friendly and helpful to small-scale entrepreneurs? The people who have rights on this plot of land would rather have free concerts than businesses that would actually provide livelihood to families. I guess, that’s what happens when elections are done.

At least, that’s not as bad as bodies being buried deep under a lake. We send our condolences

Deuteronomy 15:11: “For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’”