NAMELESS BUT IT HAS SPECIFICS. Earthquakes are not named or cannot be named. There are more specifics about earthquakes, though, at least the strong ones, ones that kill people and destroy buildings, roads and bridges.
For example, here’s what we know about the Sept. 30, 2025 earthquake:
Time: 9:59 p.m.
strength -- magnitude of 6.9
intensity: highest reported --
PEIS VII (“destructive”)
trigger: a fault that was silent for 400 years
struck Bogo City and three towns:
Daanbantayan, Medellin and San Remigio
epicenter: 21 kms northeast offshore of Bogo City with depth of 10 kms
aftershocks: 5,336, as of Saturday, Oct. 4, 2025, and still counting
killed: 69-72 (there are differences in the count); displaced: 20,000 people
Earthquakes are nameless and here’s why: lack of advance notice for naming; too many earthquakes; the location and date are more important; they’re not like hurricanes, which can be predicted and tracked.
VICTIMS’ ACUTE NEEDS PLEADED ON PLACARDS. The placards asking for food and water call attention and, with the poorly dressed children holding up the signs, grip the hearts of motorists and, by extension, those who see the images on internet phones.
Yet the images tell the world that help has not yet reached the victims and children have to go to the streets to make that happen. Bad for the optics some of our leaders worry so much about. Bad for the victims in the first place.
DID ANYONE IMAGINE THAT THE POST-QUAKE PROBLEM IS TRAFFIC? Not water and food, which top the victims’ immediate needs. Supply of that is apparently available. It’s how to get them to the earthquake victims soon enough.
Road traffic on the way to the north Cebu towns and Bogo City has been delaying the flow of water and food to the victims.
It would seem that many people would want to go to the north with their relief goods in their own vehicles. The route to the city was already clogged up pre-earthquake. It’s been a lot worse, several hours worse, after the earthquake.
CHARITY IS LAUDABLE; PASSION TO HELP OVERWHELMS. BUT THEY DON’T WANT YOU THERE. Vehicles jam the roads and bog the flow of assistance materials, especially when they carry only few goods.
Traffic drags down, deprives victims of direly needed help.
Maybe some donors have relatives and friends among the victims to give them to; others may want to give to the beneficiaries themselves, part of the “feel-good” ritual of giving; still others may not trust carriers -- even if they’re government, or especially if they’re government -- and would rather witness the transfer.
DIDN’T HAPPEN BEFORE; SYSTEM, COORDINATION. The traffic element was unforeseen. While private donors may not be dissuaded, other means of transport are available and must have been considered, such as by barge, as suggested by a town mayor or any other means the National Government can provide. (President Bongbong visited the site and talked with local officials; that couldn’t be squeezed in between the PR-mandated video/photo-shoots?)
People assumed there’s a system and coordination for the affected local governments and Capitol. The results so far tell the public it has not worked well enough. The plea of the governor for private donors to put off their trip to Cebu north and the pause on accepting volunteers were obviously moves to lessen the seeming confusion and speed up the aid.
In contrast, critics of the governor haven’t slowed down in criticisms, which she must also expect, given how Cebu politics works and her own sniping at alleged lapses and faults of her predecessor.
OVERALL THOUGH, CEBUANOS GET A GOOD REVIEW in their response to the crisis. Cebu and its inhabitants are being praised for “strength and resilience.” And the overflow of help has come not only from private citizens in the province but also from local governments outside Cebu that haven’t forgotten the help they got from this island and its people when disaster struck them.