All posts filed under: Personal

Metro Manila Flood August 9, 2026

‘Bad Weather’ Is a Luxury Word

Somewhere in Metro Manila this morning, someone is posting a photo of coffee by the window, captioned with some version of ang ganda ng weather, sana all pahinga. Not far from that window, a family in Rizal is arranging a wake for someone the floodwater took over the weekend. Somewhere else — Benguet, maybe, or a low-lying barangay along the Marikina — people are standing on a roof right now, watching the water climb, waiting for a rescue boat that hasn’t come yet. I’m not writing this as either of those people. I’m the guy in between — the one who got mildly, expensively, embarrassingly inconvenienced last night trying to get home, and who’s uncomfortable enough about that to actually sit with why. The Weather Is Not the Same Weather for Everyone Here’s the thing about a red rainfall warning: it describes rainfall, not risk. On paper, everyone under it gets the same millimeters. In practice, “bad weather” means a cancelled outdoor lunch for one person and a flooded sari-sari store for another, sometimes on …