My good friend Google defines “proactive” as “creating or controlling a situation by causing something to happen rather than responding to it after it has happened.”
During my much younger years, this Ibaloy writer remembers our lolo, the late Gen. Pedro Baban of the Philippine Military Academy Class 1940 and our beloved country’s first Igorot general, telling my siblings, cousins, and I to always anticipate things that may happen and be prepared for these should they do occur. In other words, be proactive.
Many years later, I hear the word often being drilled upon us lowly workers and esteemed officials at City Hall by Mayor Benjie Magalong, himself a graduate of PMA.
He often encourages us to, you guessed it, anticipate problems and immediately take the initiative to create solutions and not wait for these to happen and just be reactive. Being proactive must be part of the military mindset, I guess, which we could all learn and benefit from.
Anyway, among the city’s proactive activities, is a “Contingency Planning Workshop for Hydrometeorological Hazards” conducted by the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO) from Nov. 15 to 19 participated by representatives of DRRM Council member offices, agencies and civil society organizations.
Hydrometeorological hazards are of atmospheric, hydrologic, or oceanographic origin like typhoons or hurricanes, floods, flash floods, and more.
CDRRMO Chief Antonette Anaban said the five-day activity aimed to give participants the knowledge, skills, and attitude that are essential in formulating a contingency plan that is responsive to needs that will arise during a worst-case disaster situation triggered by typhoons and the like. In 2018, Typhoon Ompong left 54 dead, 42 missing, and 32 injured as it hammered the Cordillera.
Earlier, her office held a workshop on earthquake contingency planning and will soon conduct a similar activity on emerging diseases brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic that started in Wuhan, China.
Here’s “I Will Love You” by Christopher Poindexter: “I will love you,/ Not starting with/ Your skin or/ Your organs or/ Your bones:/ I will love madly first,/ Your naked soul.”
Let’s end with a prayer: “Thankful Lord, that You’ve blessed me beyond measure. Thankful that in my heart lives life’s greatest treasure. That You, dear Jesus, reside in that place and I’m ever so grateful for Your unending grace. So please, heavenly Father, bless this food You’ve provided, and bless each and every person invited.”
May our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ continue to bless and keep us all safe.
