Cebu had not yet fully recovered from the trauma of the magnitude 6.9 earthquake of barely a month ago when typhoon Tino (international name: Kalmaegi) arrived last Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025.
At home, my niece, Tracy, and I stayed awake all night of Nov. 3, awaiting the arrival of typhoon Tino, dawn of Nov. 4. As the winds howled and the waters rose, we found ourselves thrown into the vast sea of danger that enveloped our home.
I first heard the winds around 2:30 in the morning. Shortly before five, the power went out. The winds were still going strong at five when it was expected to abate. At six, it was still pouring and the winds were still whipping. I don’t remember what time it was when we finally felt safe. Maybe, around eight?
But tragically, elsewhere in the city, homes had already been inundated with water. Some had already been washed away, carrying with them lives and life savings. Cars were floating like boats in murky waters, some piled up like broken toys.
It was heartbreaking to see and hear the pleas for help on social media in real time. People frantically climbing up to their roofs to stay safe and dry to no avail. Parents desperately holding on to their babies, some of whom they lost to the winds and waters. Pets all tied up and helpless as the waters rose.
Calls for rescue seemed to go unheeded. People were trapped inside their own homes as the roads were impassable and heavily flooded. Cebu was not without heroes. But typhoon Tino was a formidable foe.
As of this writing, the death toll is 188, 142 of which came from Cebu and more than 40 of which were children aged below two. Ninety-six have been injured while 135 remain missing, many of whom are children.
Could those lives have been saved? Oh yes. If only we had listened to the environmentalists whom we dismissed as crackpots.
Global warming is a myth. We don’t need trees. Urbanization is the key to progress. So, let’s build, build, build. Let’s strip the mountains bare and build the edifices of our dreams. And we wonder why we have massive soil erosion that causes flash floods every time the rains come and the typhoons hit?
When are we going to wake up to the reality that we are destroying our own lives and killing our own families? The typhoons are becoming stronger because of global warming. But its effects are becoming deadlier because of human choices.
When I see an arm out a car window, casually dropping trash into the street, it enrages me so that I’m tempted to cut the arm off. Why do people throw trash everywhere including into drainage systems and creeks?
Don’t they know they’re poisoning the water, poisoning the air, poisoning themselves with their own trash?
Urbanization cannot come at the cost of environmental degradation. Cebu has been stripped of its trees. How much forest cover do we have left? Is it any wonder nature brings its fury upon us?
Clogged drainage systems. Diverted public funds. Non-existent urban planning and flood control projects. Developers without a conscience. Undisciplined citizens. Leaders who have run Cebu to the ground because of indifference.
It’s time to wake up, Cebu. We braced for Typhoon Tino, well-prepared. But we failed. We failed to save lives and property. Super typhoon Uwan is coming this weekend. I pray we will be spared. But I confess I am tired. We can only do so much. Our government needs to function and look out for us.
We cannot continue to live like this anymore — without change, without accountability, without concrete plans for the future, without good governance, without a conscience. Wake up, Cebu.