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different. Many of the old buildings were demolished and rebuilt into
brand new expensive condominiums. Such apartments are so
expensive that none of the old residents can afford to live there so
rents have increased and people have left. What is sad is that most of
the residents moved out because many of them lost everything from
their livelihoods to their homes.
Q10: What was your involvement in Yolanda operations?
A10: Just weeks after Typhoon Yolanda hit, I joined Gabriela Philippines
through their relief program Lingap Gabriela. We went in a caravan
with truckloads of supplies to Tacloban on a psychosocial medical
mission for a few days. The journey to get down there by land was
hard and long. Gabriela has a chapter there in Palo and we heard of
areas not receiving any aid or response from their local government
unit. So we set up a station to distribute dry foods and rice, conduct
psychosocial counseling, do health checks and give out medicines, and
engage with the children in activities to help them process their
emotions. We also went to one of the mass graves, which was really
heartbreaking as there were children playing there to stay close to their
parents who had been killed in the typhoon. I witnessed the lack of
food and medicine, vitamins, and other personal hygiene kits for the
families. It was upsetting to know a lot of relief goods were not being
distributed. They do not get the immediate basic care from the
government. The community was really ruined by the typhoon.
Q11: Do you have any idea about climate change?
A11: Climate change has been progressively on the decline since my adult
years. Hurricane George was my first wake up call. Now we see
these tornados coming to Brooklyn. And every year now, hurricanes
come hit the east coast of the United States and all across the
Philippines more frequently. Experts report direct correlations to
pollution and gas emissions, overproduction of goods, no-regulation
of factories, and lack of corporate social responsibility. I also know
and have seen the effects of mining for natural resources in my
parents’ provinces and how that creates an imbalance in the natural
ecosystem as well, causing landslides, earthquakes, and massive
flooding not to mention the silt that destroys the lakes where there
once were fish. There are chemicals and leeching of other poisons
into drinking water -- all of these are related to the corporate
irresponsibility. They extract minerals for processing and profit gail
while producing and excess of goods regardless of whether we even
need these products. There is massive waste produced as a result.
Moreover, their decision to keep on drilling kills marine lives, and the
garbage from these companies contributes to the destruction of the
nature and wildlife. There is a clear correlation for me and
documented by scientists and researchers between what transnational
companies are doing and the impacts on climate change.