RECKLESS & IRRESPONSIBLE Here is todays issue of the fair and fearless paper, The Freeman. Perhaps to sell more copies today, it chose to scream with a banner story saying, Storm surge may reach 8m. And on the second paragraph, it further stated that PAGASAs officer-in-charge Meyma Kasilagan said they are expecting storm surge between four to eight meters. Whoa! The incurable, obsessive compulsive sucker for facts that I am, I know for one from dozens of weather websites and news updates that I have been to for the last 24 hours, none ever mentioned 5, more so 8 meters! So again I zoomed to the DOST PAGASA Storm Surge Advisory microsite. And nowhere is there a 5 or an 8! blog.noah.dost.gov.ph/2014/12/04/official-list-of-localities-typhoon-ruby-hagupit-storm-surge-advisory/ None from JTWC (US Navy), none from JMA (Japan). Leche ni nga newspaper. Leche ni nga OIC. Pagka iresponsable! Maybe they think 8m is like 8ft. The ignorance! Four to eight meters is double the storm surge warning announced before Haiyan struck. And so I wonder, in that presscon where PAGASA supposedly mentioned 4 to 8m, wouldnt that startle everyone in that tragic room? Wouldnt the fearless Freeman journalist (or worse, journalists!) shiver in fear so much so that he or she would have asked a battery of follow-up questions directed at the 8 meters? My sense is that even journalists, these creatures may not really realize or imagine what a storm surge is, and when to take it seriously. Because indeed, if PAGASAs Meyma Kasilagan was quoted correctly here, then we should all panic like hell because 8 meters is a two-storey building (my home is 9 meters high to the tip of the roof). And if no one is panicking this much based on the honorable Ms Kasilagans declaration, then it must be because either PAGASA has no credibility or nobody reads the Freeman. Instead of this fearless paper recklessly sowing fear, it should instead focus on proofreading the many typos and the multitude of grammar blunders that have become the reputation of this local daily. In these times where all we hang on to is information, journalism is holy and sacred. But obviously, not for this fair and fearless paper. As I always say, the one we should fear the most is the one who has no fear. Because the fearless one is oftentimes the reckless one. God bless Hagupit. God bless us all. Spare us Oh Lord.
Posted on: Fri, 05 Dec 2014 07:34:56 +0000