Classes have been suspended for two days. While the torrential rains have abated since early today, the skies remain overcast and the weather people say that more rains are expected until tomorrow. The kids have been happily surfing the net and watching DVDs to get some respite from homeworks and projects due tomorrow while wondering, and half-hoping, that classes will remain suspended.
Lost man hours, commuters (including very young school children since classes were not officially suspended yesterday morning until around 6.45 a.m.) stranded in the flooded streets, traffic and road hazards, the threat of landslides, and yet…
ENERGY and agriculture officials are praying for more rain despite the torrential downpour and floods that hit Metro Manila yesterday. [Manila Standard Today]
All because the water in the dams, source of hydro-electric power, and the parched farmlands of Luzon need the rainfall badly.
Sometimes, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
The DepEd people never learn. Suspension of classes need to be announced before 5.00 a.m.; otherwise, a lot of students would have left for school and any announcement later than that would be useless because they would probably already be stranded. Yesterday, the radio was on and I heard Usec. Vilma Labrador make the announcement over DZMM at around 6.45 a.m. And she had the gall to blame the radio network because all the phone lines were busy. Unbelievable. What happened to text messaging? I am subscribed to the DepEd text alert service and I never got a message regarding the suspension of classes.
Actually, the announcement had become useless to us by then. The school bus service had texted me much earlier to say that the school had taken the initiative of suspending classes. School children in Quezon City weren’t so lucky. As of 6.30 a.m. yesterday, the official announcement from the city mayor’s office was that there was no suspension. Amazing. Not all families can afford SUVs in which to ferry kids to and from school. I used to think DepEd’s policy of leaving the suspension of classes to the discretion of local government units was a good move. Apparently, that only works in cases where the mayor is awake and lucid early in the morning to make an intelligent decision.
Sigh.
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
Rach 08.09.07 at 6:11 pm
I agree, they never learn! When I was young, I experienced countless times of going to school on a rainy day just to find out classes have been suspended. Over the years, they have always been consistently late on making announcements.
david 08.09.07 at 8:03 pm
I read about the suspension of classes the evening before on the Inquirer website. There’s a notice there now for Friday, too (classes still suspended in some northern and central Luzon provinces, but will resume in Manila).
kotsengkuba, ang kubang OFW 08.09.07 at 8:15 pm
Remembering my college days, i could never rant about the delayed class suspensions since I only live in Balic-Balic and my school is only a jeepney ride. Pero awang-awa ako (if not tuwang-tuwa) sa mga kaklase kong uwian pa ng bulacan at pampanga na halos maiyak pag dating ng campus at malamang walang pasok. Kaya ang ginagawa namin e nagtatampisaw kami sa baha papunta dun sa bahay ng tinatambayan naming kaklase.
Weird thing though, with my 5 years in UST, ni minsan hindi pa ko inabutan ng baha sa kalsada.
raqgold 08.09.07 at 8:29 pm
i am a UST grad. can you imagine the ‘fun’ i have everytime classes is suspended after commuting for hours from pasay to espana? this is really sleeping on their jobs, am sure the officials are still in bed dreaming while the parents and school kids are already out braving the storm!
Mitchteryosa 08.09.07 at 8:30 pm
Baha sa bahay namin sa Olongapo.
rolly 08.09.07 at 9:07 pm
We were on our way already when the DepEd Undersecretary made the announcement. Funny but before that the office of the mayor of QC was on and was adamant to hold classes. “This is just rain that we have every year anyway.” Then the radio announcer told him about the condition of the streets and o the announcer’s dismay, he wouldn’t budge from his stance.
Connie 08.09.07 at 10:13 pm
David, that was for the second day already — today, Thursday. The announcement was made last night but the suspension was declared by Malacañang, not the DepEd. On Wednesday morning, the suspension came too late.
Kotsengkuba, I commuted from Caloocan to UP for years hanggang naawa Tatay ko, binigyan ako ng [bulok na] kotse. When it flooded in the Monumento area, it was a nightmare. And our house was two jeepney rides from there.
Raqgold, imagine how many changes of administration there have been since, ganun pa rin sila.
Mitch, most of Central Luzon was affected. Hanggang Ilocos and the Mountain Province, actually.
Tito Rolly, the mayor of QC is so attuned with the reality of the lives of the average citizen, ano? Kainis.
brenda 08.10.07 at 5:02 am
Lucky for us here in Cebu, walang ulan although makulimlim ang panahon. When I was watching the news nagulat nga ako sa laki ng baha. Just like you, I feel the same way about the late announcement of suspending classes. I’ve had the same experience when I was in college. Byahe ako from Marikina to Sta. Mesa tapos pagdating sa campus tsaka mo lang malalaman na walang pasok. I particularly worry about my niece who’s studying at UST and lives in Muntinlupa and she has to commute everyday. Bahain pa din ba ang España just like before?
cocoy lizardo 08.10.07 at 8:49 am
personally i just decide for my young children i.e. pre-school, grade and high school.
since it will always be a case of SISIHAN and TURUAN, we parents might as well decide on what is best for our children.
my two cents on this never ending school suspension announcements.
Connie 08.10.07 at 11:33 am
brenda, as far as i know, yes, España is the same.
cocoy, that might solve individual problems but that does not really address the issue that we deserve a more competent and responsive DepEd and LGUs, ‘di ba?
Kongkong622 08.10.07 at 12:11 pm
Several administrations have come and gone but still it’s the same set of excuses that they give whenever this thing happens. And I don’t see anything changing anytime soon.
Jon Limjap 08.10.07 at 1:10 pm
I believe that what is fundamentally wrong is that Pag-asa’s storm signal system does not take rainfall into account. All it depends on is wind speed. The situation the other day was that the storm was not windy, but it was very wet.
Weather satellites and radar can detect both wind speed and atmospheric water volume. They should take the latter into account, especially because of the floods rains cause.
And in the age of internet, and mobile, it is utterly inexcusable for public officials to blame communication failures for these kinds of things. Probably the undersecretary woke up late and found a stupid convenient excuse.
Nikita 08.10.07 at 1:25 pm
It’s exam week for my boys; so to decide last Wednesday not to send them to school when the official announcement is that there were classes is not an easy one to make. :-/
Frustrating talaga ang ganitong sitwasyon.
david 08.10.07 at 7:15 pm
Sorry, after reading the news that Malacañang had suspended classes, I thought the classes had actually been suspended! Silly me! I learned something new.
We still had school up North on Wednesday, but classes were canceled Thursday and Friday.
Connie 08.10.07 at 7:21 pm
Nikita, I think I’ll take your comment in relation with cocoy’s. Your position is the same as mine. Kasi, kung decision ng parents not to send the kids to school, and classes are not suspended and the kids miss an important activity and there is no making up for it, the kids suffer.
On the other hand, it’s so cruel to still send them to school despite the rains and floods just for the sake of making sure that they miss nothing.
Parents shouldn’t be pushed against the wall to make that decision.
Connie 08.10.07 at 11:35 pm
david, i think on wednesday, it was deped only that made the announcement but a lot of northern provinces were included. ilocos, mountain province, benguet, abra… and you still had classes on wednesday? kawawa naman mga bata sa inyo!
cocoy lizardo 08.11.07 at 8:18 am
The incompetence of the government agencies is a fact. Alam na natin lahat yan.
The decision is really tricky and the call has to be made on a case to case basis. Parental gut feel will somehow guide us on this - I believe.
If you have a way of getting your kids to and fro school safely then it will not be much of a problem. But this is critical for children who commute then parents worry if their children are safe.
Take care everyone!
Cheers!