Last week, it felt like 2013 again.
The 7.2 magnitude Bohol earthquake that affected Cebu struck on Oct. 15, 2013. Three weeks later, on Nov. 8, the catastrophic tropical cyclone, Yolanda (a.k.a. Haiyan), with gusts up to 275 km/h devastated Cebu again.
Most affected in Cebu were those from the north, the very same people who currently bear the brunt of the 6.9 magnitude earthquake last Sept. 30, 2025.
Once more, I was moved by the incredible spirit of volunteerism in Cebu and the swift private initiative to extend relief and assistance that unfortunately brought the same intolerable traffic on the roads going to the north in 2013.
Five employees of ours, bringing much-needed aid in the form of construction supplies, food, water and care packages to their families in the north, left at six in the afternoon of Saturday and arrived there at six in the morning of Sunday. It took them 12 hours to traverse a distance that regularly might have only taken three hours.
While I laud the droves who went to extend assistnce and distribute much-needed relief goods to the northern cities and towns, we should heed the call of the Provincial Government to stop personally delivering relief goods to the north and instead deliver them at designated drop-off sites in order to decongest traffic but also to prevent further danger from occurring.
With the continuing aftershocks, the structural integrity of roads and bridges have been compromised. Many sinkholes have, in fact, appeared in northern Cebu.
Let us give way to the governmental units and nongovernmental organizations to deliver and do what they should. Let us give way to immediate members of affected families in northern Cebu who reside outside of the affected areas to travel and see their families to extend comfort, assistance and aid.
When there was a call for blood donors, the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center was inundated with donors so that within 24 hours, they had exceeded their desired quota of blood products.
Everywhere I went last weekend, people were buying food, water, toiletries, supplies to donate to northern Cebu. I saw the same thing happen in 2013 when supermarkets shelves were practically wiped out. And this is why I am proud to call Cebu, home.
Our hearts are in the right place but some things have to change.
While Cebu is not known to be as seismically active as other regions in the country, we now know that faults can lie dormant for more than 400 years like the Bogo Bay Fault that caused the 6.9 magnitude earthquake of Sept. 30.
The Philippines is located in the “Ring of Fire,” where there is a high frequency of earthquakes and volcanic activity. It also sits in the Pacific typhoon belt where tropical cyclones primarily form which is why we experience, on the average, 20 typhoons annually.
We are not just one of the most seismically vulnerable countries on the planet, we are also one of the most typhoon-affected and one of the most disaster-prone. But where is our disaster preparedness?
Private initiative remains strong but government at all levels should lead, coordinate and facilitate rescue, retrieval, relief and rehabilitation efforts to avoid problems like disproportionate distribution of assistance and traffic congestion that hamper relief and rehabilitation efforts.
This will not be our last earthquake, tropical cyclone, storm surge or flooding. One day, despite all the good that flows when disaster strikes, I don’t want to say, it feels like 2025 again. Our hearts are in the right place, but some things have to change.