Us vs Typhoon Pepeng

Typhoon Pepeng/Parma has really devastated Northern Luzon, and has been pouring a huge amount of rain for about a week now.

Barangay Balili, La Trinidad, Benguet

Here are some tweets from @mlq3 via Danny Durante:

Rainfall 8am yesterday to 8am today is 685 mm., more than Ondoy in Manila.

Ave rainfall in baguio october past 30 yrs only 461mm, but within 24 hours has reachd 685mm already.

(and again, it's been raining there for a week already...)

and via @PlanetEarth101:

NDCC said people affected by Pepeng has reached over 1million people with nearly 40,000 inside 162 evacuation centers

The mountainous topography of Northern Luzon means they're very prone to landslides, and at the same time, the heavy rains has already brought floods to the provinces

Typhoon Pepeng may not have affected Manila as badly as the tropical storm Ondoy did, but I hope people still pour in as much help this time as they did last week for Ondoy victims.

Let's donating as much as we can:

http://www.redcross.org.ph/Site/PNRC/wtd.aspx

http://www.quezon.ph/2009/09/26/how-to-help/

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/09/27/09/tropical-storm-ondoy-how-you-can-help

http://www.kapusofoundation.com/donate

And One Not-So Classy

In fact, not classy at all.

Arroyo dined for 1M pesos in New York—report

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her party racked up a dinner bill of close to P1 million at a ritzy New York restaurant during her recent trip to the United States, according to an online news report.

Malacañang Palace's response:

Contrary to the report, Remonde insisted that the dinner was a “simple” one and was hosted by Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez.

The original source of the news, (The New York Post's Page Six, which, yeah, is a gossip column):

THE economic downturn hasn't persuaded everyone to pinch pennies. Philippines President Maria Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was at Le Cirque the other night with a large entourage enjoying the good life, even though the former comptroller of her country's armed serv ices, Carlos Garcia, was found guilty earlier this year of per jury and two of his sons were arrested in the US on bulk cash-smuggling charges. Maca pagal-Arroyo ordered several bottles of very expensive wine, pushing the dinner tab up to $20,000.

GMA isn't just a public figure. She's a public servant. A public servant to a developing democratic country. Listen, no one's asking her to starve herself or eat in the streets on these official trips, but geez, a $20,000 dinner? Even if it was paid for by someone else, it doesn't justify the lavishness of it all. (And it doesn't help that that someone else who paid for dinner was also a Filipino public servant...) Especially when so many Filipinos are literally starving and can't enjoy having three basic meals a day. This is Imelda Marcos-levels of wasteful extravagance, and the height of classlessness.



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Public Service

Let's start the -ber months with some public service shit.

Bantay Bata 163 is a child welfare program of ABS-CBN Foundation that not only rescues and rehabilitates sick and abused children, but also provides shelter, therapy and quality home care for rescued children until they can be reunited with their families or referred to proper child-caring agencies.

Kids will always give their best smiles. But really, they need YOU. Click and take action now.

Children's Hour also provides so many easy ways to help children in need here in the Philippines. Please take the time to visit the site and find out how. Just a couple of clicks. :)

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As you may know, there has been a devastating oil spill off the coast of Guimaras Island, a small province in Western Visayas, after an oil tanker carrying a couple million tons of bunker fuel sank at sea. Like most other provinces in the Philippines, Guimaras relies alot on its environmental resources. There is a website that was recently put up to advertise Gumaras' need for assistance, called Project Sunrise. The site contains some info on the situation in Guimaras, and how you can help.

As of 20 August 2006, at least 4,000 coastal families have been directly affected by the spill. They are now experiencing food and water shortage because their livelihood have been crippled by the oil spill and groundwater have been rendered unsafe for drinking. Medicines, particularly for skin rashes and upper respiratory tract infections, are also needed by affected families. Provincial and municipal government funds are now running out.