State of Emergency (sort of...)

(From main page)

Despite a tendency to end up in zip cuffs, as Patrick so kindly pointed out, I have in fact stayed well clear of the current ruckus in Manila (if you missed the word, you can check out the BBC's take here). Ya'll will be quite relieved to know that Peace Corps expressly forbids us from getting involved in, or express opinions about local politics. Thankfully I can be as vocal as I desire about my own country's politics... It also has had very little affect on life here. There is a huge divide between life in Manila and life "in the Provinces." I'm sure everyone in town has heard the news, but it hasn't come up at all in any of my own daily interactions. When GMA (the president) was threatened with impeachment earlier this year for alleged election fraud everyone was very blasé about the whole ordeal. One corrupt government replaced by another didn't appear to rank high in peoples concerns about life. I find a lot of apathy about the government and the feeling that it is corrupt and unfixable. So, they continue to have their shenanigans in Manila and we continue our quiet life here in Ifugao. Hopefully it will continue in that vein. In the meantime Peace Corps has banned all non-necessary travel to Manila and I'll wait and see what happens from here like everyone else... sans the zip cuffs. On another note, the coup plotters weren't the only ones planning events around the 20 year anniversary of Marcos' fall from power. The BBC World Service did a great documentary on People Power in the Philippines that you can find and listen to here. I caught part II and it does a fairly good job of providing background and looking at the state of the politics in the Philippines. Life in an emerging democracy is never boring on the political front.

NPA Update

At PST II, way back in September we finally got a briefly on the history of the New People's Army (NPA) by our Safety & Security Coordinator (SSC). It appears that the group, while still nominally active, has splinter into many factions that mostly use its name as a front for minor banditry. We still occasionally here rumors of cell towers going down via the NPA for bribes not paid, but nothing confirmed in these parts. There have been a few recent, isolated robberies claimed by the NPA in the past two months but nothing in Northern Luzon.

I hear around town that the NPA was once active here but driven out by the locals long ago. Now their biggest concern is municipal vehicles with the municipal budget in them being hijacked (its happened a few times now in Ifugao) and more locally, during the last big storm and subsequent brown out, someone stole a large length of the power cable along the road apparently to sell for scrap or use themselves. This left us without power for almost a week and the Power Co-op has threatened to not replace it next time as this has been the 2nd incident.

Still, when all is said and done, I live in a very peaceful, quiet corner of our world. At least nobody is writing inflammatory cartoons over here...

Mud. Lots & Lots of Mud.

As most of you have probably heard from the international news Southern Leyte was hit by a massive mud slide that buried a town in around 10m of mud. Most of the inhabitants are thought to be dead. Luckily the Peace Corps volunteer working in the area was un-harmed and we all were warned of the conditions in the area by our Saftey and Security Coordinator before the incident. For more on the tradgety you can read about it on the BBC here.

Specific to my site, while it has officially been designated, though that doesn't exactly carry much weight as it is was determined by a few general factors. Here's a quote from the S&S notice we got.

"With the recent disastrous landslide in St. Bernard, Southern Leyte, the Mines and Geosciences Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has reported to the media that there are eleven (11) areas/provinces susceptible to landslides that may be triggered by continuous rains. The provinces DENR mentioned are Benguet, Mountain Province, Nueva Vizcaya, Kalinga, Apayao, Southern Leyte, Abra, Marinduque, Cebu, Catanduanes and Ifugao... Ms. Malyn Tumonong, a senior science research specialist of DENR-Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), said these provinces have met three or four criteria to be considered prone to landslides. "They have 18-degree slopes and above, have several fault lines, tributaries like rivers and are densely populated," she said in a briefing."

While the road is periodically cut off for short times due to slides the rocky terrian does not lend itself to the massive slides as experienced in Leyte. Fortunately, as well, I live on top of the hill, so I would just get a quick sudden trip down. :o)