My poor Philippines: Trapped in typhoon, earthquake, and shatter belts
Noting the current turmoil caused by the exposure of flood control corruption scandals in our country, corroborated by recent disastrous flooding events, I cannot help but think how unfortunate it is that our country is located in the typhoon, earthquake, and shatter belts of the world.
The typhoon belt in our part of the world is a large region in the western Pacific Ocean where the climatic conditions are ripe for tropical cyclones or typhoons to form and intensify. Warm ocean currents in the tropical zone evaporate and provide continuous energy for the development of powerful storms that move in a west or northwest direction. It has been observed that the average of 20 typhoons per year visiting the country has become more intense due to the increasing temperature of tropical waters caused by climate change. We have seen this in the destructive behavior of recent strong typhoons “Tino” and “Uwan” and in the harrowing aftermaths of “Yolanda” in 2013 and “Ondoy” and “Pepeng” in 2009.
The Philippines is also located in the so-called Ring of Fire, where the Eurasian and Pacific crustal plates of the Earth meet, with the former plate subducting, or moving under, the latter plate. The Philippines is a subplate of the Pacific Plate and is unfortunately being subducted on both sides by these two large plates—a process that has created many mountains, volcanoes and fault lines that get activated during plate movements.
These crustal disturbances consequently generate geological hazards such as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, landslides, and liquefaction. We have seen evidence of crustal movements in the recent Cebu earthquake and in the 1991 Mt. Pinatubo eruption, which blanketed the globe with ash. Geologists have warned us to prepare for the movement of the West Valley Fault, which could destroy Metro Manila and the movement of the Manila Trench, which could flood Western Luzon with tall tsunami waves.
The third unfortunate location of our country is in a shatter belt or crush zone, a concept in geopolitics that refers to a strategically positioned region on a political map that is deeply internally divided and encompassed in the competition between great powers in geostrategic areas and spheres.
The Philippines is located in the Southeast Asia shatter belt, where two great powers—United States and China—are competing for influence and control. Because the Philippines is openly siding with the US—particularly by allowing nine Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement bases to be set up on its territory—it is exposing itself to a Chinese attack if China decides to invade Taiwan.
Should the Philippines allow itself to be “shattered” to destruction by the compounded physical and cultural forces operating simultaneously in its three overlapping belts?
With regard to our physical belts, we see that their destructive forces are abetted by the self-serving behavior and values of our politicians and civil servants. Social scientists have observed that the cause of this behavior has deep roots in our culture which as analyzed by sociologist Christopher Bueno is guided by the concepts of social acceptance and cultural reciprocity that is seen in such traits as pakikisama, palakasan, paki-usap, sakop, kagandahang loob, and awa.
However, the effective inculcation of modern values would take time as we would need to do this in impressionable minds at the grade school level. We need to do a shortcut by having a leader with the likes of Lee Kuan Yew, Park Chung-hee, and other disciplinarian leaders of Taiwan and Hong Kong.
We need a president who will realize our compounded locational quandary and shake us out of our governance stupor to effectively grapple with our climatic, geologic, and geopolitical challenges.
Meliton B. Juanico,
melitonbjuanico@gmail.com
