Deluge Monsoon Season August 2013

I had a lovely weekend, despite the monsoon rains with my girlfriends who stayed over in my little farm in Silang. We had lunch in Marcia Adams, at a new little restaurant in Alfonso, Cavite. We stayed at the farm, just chilling and experiencing the peace and quiet of the upland Cavite countryside. I am glad we all came down late afternoon, Sunday, because that evening, the monsoon rains started to fall in sheets! How timely our return to Manila. We missed the closure of the Southern Luzon Express (SLEX) by a few hours. Southwoods exist towards SLEX, is always a shorter route back to Manila However, Sunday evening, the monsoon rains flooded the exit. Had we come down any later, we would have been stranded !

( Photo from ABS CBN News, August 19, 2013) Government isn’t concerned about saving the rainforests in the uplands of Cavite, or protecting small farms from being a target of elimination ever since the SLEX was extended towards Calamba and Batangas. The political leaders have even encouraged urban sprawl towards the South to increase the earnings of the province from tax revenues . The land in the agricultural areas have been converted to commercial/residential. Shopping malls, cemeteries, and subdivisions have replaced the idyllic mango groves, and miles of rice paddies that lined the highways leading to Tagaytay. The big 8 lane expressway, or “ SLEX” did not exist in my younger days. I have been posting for so long how the hills of the uplands of Silang have been deforested, and the large mango farms and orchards, coconut plantations are gone. Those huge trees hold water in their roots, and keep the soil from being eroded...these floods have happened before but very few people were affected . The government has more maintenance costs in these highways...not to mention the many who are living in those subdivisions who are now stranded not being able to go to work in the Metropolis! The government of the Philippines, should set their priorities straight. This is going to cripple the economy eventually. Unless the rainforests and agro lands are protected, the people in the main city of Metro Manila and the neighboring provinces will just have to get used to closure of all businesses due to the flooding of major highways during the monsoon season!