Briones: The aftermath of typhoon Tino

It’s hard to fathom the events that transpired early Tuesday morning, Nov. 4, 2025.

Typhoon Tino may not have been the strongest or the deadliest to hit Cebu Province — typhoon Ruping in November 1990 left 500 people dead — but it still managed to kill more than 100 people. 

All those lives lost. All the destruction. It’s no wonder people are looking for someone to blame.

Gov. Pamela Baricuatro has called for a Senate investigation into alleged anomalies involving flood control projects in the province. After all, P26 billion was spent in Cebu since 2016, and it didn’t do anything to prevent the mayhem.

Two days after Tino submerged communities across the province, Baricuatro demanded justice and accountability from officials and contractors behind the flood control projects that failed to protect Cebu from Tino’s onslaught.

But the governor could have done more. So much more.

Before I continue, yes, I am biased. I was a consultant for former governor Gwendolyn Garcia when Odette struck on Dec. 16, 2021.

Does this mean I am comparing the two? Of course, I am. The information I am sharing should also serve as a crucial point of reference. While Garcia may have been vilified by some sectors, and some of that criticism was justifiable, Cebuanos cannot deny that in times of crisis, she always rose to the challenge.

Here’s the thing. When the disaster struck, Garcia didn’t point fingers. She acted with frenzy. We were all tired and close to a breaking point, yet her energy rubbed off on us. I guess you had to be there to truly understand what I’m trying to say.

Now you can understand my frustration at the seeming lack of urgency in Capitol’s recent actions.

Baricuatro should be mobilizing everyone, prodding different sectors for assistance. She should be ordering contractors that had contracts with the Province to deploy their heavy equipment to help clear roads to reach isolated communities, or else.

Now is not the time to play blame games. More than 100 people are already dead. The Province, and all the other local government units, should focus on the survivors.

I know it’s easy to point fingers at flood control projects that failed to do what they were supposed to do after what happened in Luzon earlier this year. But let’s face it, the odds were against us from the beginning.

According to the weather bureau Pagasa, the 24-hour rainfall during Tino was equivalent to roughly a month and a half’s worth of a typical rainfall in November. Where was all that water supposed to go? Add to that the unchecked development near or along waterways and the deforestation in the last decades. These and other factors compounded the devastation. Latching on to one culprit would be an exercise in futility, not to mention short-sightedness.

That’s why politicizing the recent tragedy should be avoided at all cost. We need to look at the bigger picture, examine where we went wrong, and address the shortcomings before the next big storm strikes.

I know it cannot happen overnight. Heck, it might not even happen in my lifetime. And it will require everyone’s cooperation. The government should not bear the burden alone. We, as citizens of this republic, should also take responsibility for our actions. But we also have to admit that some things are just beyond our purview.

And that’s where our faith comes in.