Is your Christmas and New Year vacation went well as planned? Does your Ninong or Ninang still give you money for Christmas or YOU are the one giving it to the younger ones. If you’re asking mine, ours is not that bad it’s a mixed emotion of happiness and sadness. But can you feel happiness if in this important time of the year our fellow Filipinos were fighting their survival during the storm Sendong passed our lands.

             Sendong hit the lands of the Philippines on the evening of December 17 bringing heavy rains and strong winds causing massive flooding and landslides in Northern Mindanao Area. The destruction was so massive that PAGASA even considered removing the name for future rotation of naming the storms. The latest figure of the death toll as of December 20 was 957 while the missing persons figure drop down to 49. It was even titled the weakest destructible storm to hit the Philippines for more than a decade.

              Why do you think Sendong caught us of guard? Is it because of our lack of materials? Or our rescue workers are taking too long to respond just like the previous storms had? Or is it because it was few days before Christmas and no one will expect something to happen on a special day for Jesus Christ himself? Everyone was so busy on doing their holiday preparations that they lay their guard down. We thought it was just a rain, a passing by storm that will be the last on the year 2011. But it wasn’t, that’s why I called this “Nightmare before Christmas”.

               This is not your average Jack Skellington and Sandy Claws, its much bigger and meaner than anyone else in Halloween Town. It killed many people without warning and left the survivors homeless. It was very disturbing to see people struggle just to keep their family alive to live for another year while here I am thinking that the money I gained was not good enough.  The storm hit the wrong time and place.  This just shows how violent our nature is. How it struck at the moment you least expected it. But the people brought it on to themselves. They continued on cutting trees for a momentarily income and didn’t care what permanent damage it will cause to everyone and to the nature.

                 But the damage has already been dealt and blaming someone will not lead us to somewhere. We will only weep and grieve for things that cannot come back.  So for the survivors of Sendong, be strong and face your future ahead of you. God has many plans in line for you, that’s the reason he kept you alive. Face the 2012 with a new life and think that you have been reborn by God to have a second chance. For the people reading this, it might be late but let us share our blessings to the people that were hit by Sendong. Christmas spirit is not only seen in the days of Christmas, it is seen from the people that truly cares and helps people in need. They might look okay right now but they still need our help.  Let’s give them a present that they will remember forever.