If you have been hit by Ondoy before, you would understand the severity of the disaster typhoon Sendong brought to Mindanao last weekend. Floods rose to 15 feet in the dead of the night sending people to their roofs, while others to their deaths. As of today, the body count has reached to around 700 already including people who had been missing.

Who’s to blame? The government does not have the monopoly of it, since accountability falls on various sectors – the local government that allowed deforestation and illegal mining, greedy business owners, poor technology of PAGASA and local folks who have been complacent since no strong typhoon has struck them for decades. What lessons have we learned? Given all the recipes for disaster, be ready and prepare for any eventualities. If the local officials asked folks to evacuate, flee your homes. Marikina City and the rest of Ondoy victims have learned that lesson bitterly.

Everyone can certainly make declarations of propriety. Everyone can make an ownership claim, like what Filipino explorer Tomas Cloma did in the 1940′s. He “discovered” some of these distant lands west of Palawan and named them “Freedomland” in his declaration to the world. But having no resources to combat Chinese maritime vessels patrolling the region, he ceded these islands to the Philippine government for one peso.

It was no wonder why Spratlys, among those numerous obscure islands which became suddenly desirable with news of oil-rich seabeds, had been a constant subject of dispute among five to six nations surrounding it. For this reason, the UN established the Convention on the Law of the Sea in 1982 that granted a 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone from the shorelines of the coastal States. This has put to rest traditional claims on maritime resources and further defined territorial boundaries on the seas.

With that 200-mile EEZ UN resolution, the Philippines, which owns seven of these disputed Spratlys, is in a better position to claim control over these islands. However, with China setting up guards, garrisons and who knows, steel building beneath the sea to pile up missiles in the area and sticking up to their traditional claims dated as far as the 14th century, and us with no military might or resources, bringing this matter to the UN is our only hope in the midst of constant bullying from a very powerful neighbor.

According to some websites, the view of the super moon can be more amplified with a tree or a building on the foreground. Better get your cameras ready and find a spot on a higher ground. And hopefully, it would be less cloudy too later.

It’s just bad that this year’s super moon rose in the height of the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami in Japan. But astronomers and scientists were quick to answer that the super moon has nothing to do with these calamities. While the moon’s gravity has an effect on our tides, it is not enough to make the earth shake or cause a tsunami.

Or maybe it does affect the brains of some.

From seminary to construction sites

Architect Felino Palafox Jr. attended high school in Christ the King seminary to prepare for priesthood. But his interest in the arts, math and science took him to a different field. He studied architecture in the University of Santo Tomas. His interest in architecture was inspired by his visits to the construction sites of his late uncle who was also an architect. Later on, the young Palafox finished his master’s degree in environmental planning from the University of the Philippines as a UN scholar and Advanced Management Development Program for Real Estate at Harvard University.

A sterling resume

Mall and retail tycoon, Henry Sy, got the services of Palafox as a consultant for various SM properties. He was also the architect and urban planner for Ayala Land real estate projects. Other developers from abroad have also sought his services. In Dubai, he headed a department that transformed the dessert land into a vibrant community that we see now. He was also involved in rebuilding projects in tsunami-stricken areas like Indonesia and Sri Lanka.

Today, his company, Palafox and Associates, has become the top architectural firm in the country and in Southeast Asia. His company also made it to the top 100 architectural firms in the world as compiled by the World Architecture magazine.

Answers to a calamity-prone Philippines

Palafox has been sending the Philippine government copies of his proposal “Urban Planning, Architecture and Engineering to Address Hazzards: Towards Safer Towns, Cities and Communities”. But somehow the government has shown less to zero interest as we all continued to be hammered down by worsening climate and environment.

In an interview with Jessica Soho in light of the recent earthquake in Japan, which was the biggest to strike them in 130 years, Palafox told how, in his latest conference in Mumbai, the government of India now plans to demolish 32,000 of its poorly-constructed buildings. He also outlined how unprepared and unreliable the Philippine government is when disaster, like a major earthquake, strikes the country. Metro Manila is densely populated with 14M residents squatting on every square inch and sits on the Marikina Valley Fault Line. Palafox estimates that “of the two million buildings and residential structures in Metro Manila, down to informal settlers, 25 percent would be vulnerable to earthquakes, liquefaction due to earthquakes, flooding and tsunamis at the waterfront.”

Below is a copy of his proposal “Urban Planning, Architecture and Engineering to Address Hazzards: Towards Safer Towns, Cities and Communities”. Read on while I’m out sourcing for jewelry making supplies.

Palafox Associates: Urban Planning, Architecture, and Engineering to Address Hazards

This brings us to another question: What would happen if a similar disaster strikes the Philippines?

With that magnitude, it would claim more lives given the lousy infrastructures we have and the unpreparedness of this government for any disaster. Again, Architect Felino Palafox Jr. was on TV last night calling on the government and reminded the public of dire consequences of the country’s lack of proper urban plan. The last time I saw him was during Ondoy. His company has managed to help other countries like India, wherein sub-standard buildings had been demolished and rebuilt after heeding his recommendations. I wonder how frustrating it was to him to find that this government has been sitting over his proposals for decades. The Big One, or that expected movement of the Marikina Valley Fault Line, may come any moment soon.

If you wonder why earthquakes have been happening most of the time in the Pacific Region, check this map and find that we’ve got a ring of volcanoes (red dots) surrounding us that resulted from plate movements underneath the earth since the world began.

I was able to get something that I could stick on my homepage later on. It’s a weather sticker from Wunderground. I’m a sucker for weather reports.

Enjoy the cold while it lasts.

Some people might find this idea silly because of its very simple approach in addressing a worldwide concern. But scientifically it makes sense even to a grade school pupil – white color reflects that heat back, and black color does not only makes you visually lean, but also “hotter”. You can actually test it by stepping barefoot on an asphalt road and on a concrete while savoring the aroma of Davidoff cigars. Only then you can tell the difference.

I wonder if someone in the congress would propose white-roofing the Philippines like the way we would paint our pedestrian roads white. We can ask people to wear more whites instead of yellows to save the country not only from Gloria but menacing ultraviolet rays. Maybe the back portions of those tarpaulin billboards along EDSA could help too. We’ll never know.

Where were you last night when typhoon Basyang slammed the metro and had gripped everyone in panic thinking it was another “Ondoy”? Noynoy was on his toes monitoring the situation. My brother was busy serving tikka marsala in his Cafe World. And I was groping in the dark careful not to step on sleeping cats.

But hours before Basyang struck us, I was out there having tocino, rice and egg for dinner. That was the best dinner breakfast I ever had. I almost attended a workshop in the mall but instead I bought “Here Comes the Bride” and “Kimmy Dora”, and later on checked on a fabric wholesaler.

While we were partying at home, an 8.8 magnitude earthquake shook South America with its epicenter in Chile. Tsunami created by this quake threatens to wash over the islands in the Pacific Ocean, including Japan and the Philippines in 24-hour time frame. Warnings have been issued to the residents of low-lying areas, particularly those who live along the coastal lines of the Pacific to abandon their places and move to a higher ground. Maybe next time consider those Outer Banks beach rentals or any inland summer getaway. But who’s safe these days?

The Chilean earthquake is the fifth strongest on record since 1900. And there were more devastating quakes than that.

1) May 22, 1960
Southern Chile
Magnitude 9.5
Death toll: 1,655

2) March 28, 1964
Prince William Sound, Alaska
Magnitude 9.2
Death toll: 113

3) December 26, 2004
Northern Sumatra
Magnitude 9.1
Death toll: 227,898

4) November 4, 1952
Kamchatka Peninsula
Magnitude 9.0
Death toll: none

5) February 27, 2010
Maule, Chile
Magnitude 8.8
Death toll: to be determined

6) January 31, 1908
Ecuador
Magnitude 8.8
Death toll: unknown

7) February 4, 1965
Rat Islands, Alaska
Magnitude 8.7
Death toll: no reported deaths

8 ) March 28, 2005
Northern Sumatra
Magnitude 8.6
Death toll: 1,400

9) August 15, 1950
Assam, India and Tibet
Magnitude 8.6
Death toll: 780

10) March 9, 1957
Andreanof Islands, Alaska
Magnitude 8.6
Death toll: none

There were already talks about the resurgence of El Nino happening. That would mean prolonged dry spell and a very warm summer this year. Even if it doesn’t really look like it is about to take place any time sooner up there near the North Pole. My nieces in the UK are having snowball fights, while most parts of the country are facing power and food crises. To those in the Arctic, this year’s winter happens to be the coldest in years.

For Manila denizens, end of January cold spell (not that cold though) would mean the coming of a hot and humid summer. This insane weather pattern does not exempt anyone, and it knows no country. All you need to do is to prepare. By the way, there are free insurance quotes should you want to secure yourselves from impending disasters.