Editorial 3/11/16 (emergency preparedness, earthquake, Salonga, senator, typhoon, president, election, Philippines)
Philippine Star "Preparedness" No amount of preparation could have saved northeastern Japan from the triple whammy of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown. Japan, used to powerful earthquakes and tsunamis and aware of the risks of nuclear power, is ahead of many countries in terms of disaster management. Yet no one expected the magnitude of the disaster that struck on March 11, 2011. The quake and tsunami left nearly 16,000 people dead and over 2,500 still missing. Property damage and economic losses have been placed at hundreds of billions of dollars. Apart from an occasion to mourn the dead and missing, the annual commemoration of the event has become a reminder to the world of the urgency of disaster preparedness. The Philippines, like Japan, lies along the Pacific Ring of Fire and is prone to powerful earthquakes. [full text] Sun.Star Cebu "Salonga and the best" FORMER senator Jovito Salonga had long faded from the political ...