24/07/2025
Pls react β₯οΈ and share the original post. Isinulat ito ng aking anak. Ito ay tungkol sa nangyayari sa ating bansa at sa gobyernong hindi maramdaman. Malaking tulong po ung pag-react at pagshare po ninyo. Thank you po sa suporta. God bless po
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People call it βresilience,β but what if all this time, the Philippines was just forced to βre-silenceβ?
Here comes the heavy rain once again, tapping the thin roofs, while the water is leaking through its holes caught by pails with old clothes. The children are still playing outside, and their laughter is mixed with the sound of thunder, then their mothers call them back before the water rises. Fathers tie their roofs to trees, hoping they wonβt fly away when the monster wind strikes again. Inside cramped tiny homes, families are lifting their belongings onto chairs and tables, praying it will be enough when the flood comes. We have seen this too many times, in a country where an average of 20 storms visit every year. These calamities turn our streets into seas, our homes into howls, and high hopes into cries for help, while waiting for the sun even if it feels like it will never come back.
They usually call us strong, and we are, but no one bothers to ask why we always need to be. We have laws like R.A. 10121 that hold a promise to prepare us for such calamities, like in 2023 alone, an amount of 31 Billion Pesos was set aside for disaster funds. However, when the rain comes, many families still run to crowded schools and chapels for safety. We patiently wait for relief that sometimes arrives late, gratefully accepting the small packs of noodles that will not last long when floodwaters stay for weeks. All we can do is sweep the mud off our floors again and again, patch roofs with random scraps, and pray that the next storm wonβt be strong. And yes, smiling and waving at the camera is what we have learned to do, even when we are tiredβdrained rather.
Most of the time, pictures of our smiles in the storm are called βFilipino spirit.β They love how we sing during floods and how we find reasons to laugh even when we are hungry, and it is trueβwe really do. But they do not see the tears of parents who cannot feed their children for several days, the fear in the eyes of students who do not know how to study in an unstable environment, or the shaking hands of workers who do not know if they will still have jobs after the rain. They do not see the silence after the storm, when families are only left to count what is left, trying to find hope in empty kitchens and their empty pockets.
Still, nothing changes with the pride we have when we can help each other, continue to find ways to live, and move forward even after losing so much. We are proud of the laughter we share, the stories we tell to keep each other strong, and the faith we hold on to when all we can do is sit in the corner and watch our house drift from the flood. But we deserve more than survival. We deserve leaders who know how to prepare before the rain and who care about our pain, not just when storms become a trending topic in news headlines and influencers create content out of it. We deserve safe homes, clean water, and a future where our children can sleep peacefully even when it rains. We, Filipinos, deserve better.
Let the world keep praising our resilience, but may we never again be forced into another re-silence just to prove it.
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Feature by Frincess Marystel Dayrit
Photo from Reuters
Layout by Rikki Mari C. Maghinang
