LUCKILY, Basyang weakened back again from a tropical storm to tropical depression. And if luck allows it, we may experience a Wednesday with a cloudy weather but less rain.
This is because as of 2 p.m. Tuesday, February 13, satellite images from Pagasa indicated some movement of Basyang heading towards the Visayas region, contrary to what was earlier predicted that it will sweep in most Mindanao areas similar to Vinta last year.
Flood-prone barangays in Cagayan de Oro and Misamis Oriental have already initiated preemptive evacuations; local disaster risk reduction units have been in the lookout as well as rescuers who are on standby.
Cagayan and Iponan Rivers' water levels were fortunately stable and water and electricity were up and running, at least in most areas.
If things would go on for the better, some people might celebrate Valentines without worrying too much of possible flooding, it may be gloomy but at least the celebration with the significant other will be warm.
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Senator Antonio Trillanes IV was declared a "persona non grata" by the City Council of Davao, after citing a 2015 police data that the city topped in murder and rape cases.
The move was made by its newly minted vice mayor, Bernard Al-ag, who replaced Paolo Duterte after resigning from his post at the height of shabu and customs corruption controversies.
Al-ag disputed Trillanes' statements that if these data were true, Davao City would not be awarded a good governance award in 2015, which was given by the Department of Interior and Local Government.
Trillanes bounced back in a statement, saying that truth hurts.
Persona non grata means "person not appreciated," and usually being labeled of one means that he or she may not be able to enter the place where the person was declared as undesirable.
Putting people under persona non grata may not erase some basic facts and figures that even in a safe and ideal city like Davao can be infested with criminality.
But Trillanes have been on the rampage in plotting the ouster of President Duterte, and he will do all he can, even if that means dragging a whole city just to make the president booted out.
All of this, because of political agenda.
(Nefluczon@gmail.com)