Shortly after President GMA announced that the Philippines has already become a Second World country, “Milenyo” (international name: Xangsane) slapped her with a wet rebuke. “Milenyo” does not even qualify as one of the strongest typhoons to hit the country; its sustained speed of 130 kph is nothing compared to Loleng’s maximum winds of 290 kph in 1998. Yet power supply is down in most parts of Luzon and some areas remain waterless. Worse, 72 people were killed. Whoever told President GMA to proclaim our ascencion from a Third World to a “Second World” country should be made to travel the length of EDSA in the middle of a tropical typhoon.
(Incidentally, and a colleague was wise to point this out, “Second World” as a term collectively refers to the communist-socialist states that were within the sphere of influence of the Soviet Union.)
Anyway, power is still down in our village. I’ve been calling Meralco‘s 16211 24-hour customer service hotline since Thursday, and this morning, at 4 AM, I finally got through. I had to endure Meralco’s jingle (“Bagyo o bumaliktad man ang mundo, maasahan ninyo… Mas masaya, mas maganda ang may kuryente…“) for several minutes, and finally a voice – a male voice – answered on the other line. I asked him immediately when Meralco would be able to restore power in our area, and he said that they don’t have an estimate yet but – and here he was suddenly upbeat – i should be happy to note that 60% of Luzon has electricity already.
I would have asked him to give me a list of places with power supply – anywhere in Luzon – so that I could immediately pack up and move out, but that would have been too calloused on my part.
xfullman 