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TYPHOON SENDONG OCCURRENCE AN AVENGE OF ENCHANTED BEINGS NOT TRUE I. INTRODUCTION 1.1 B ACKGROUND .2 1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM . .2 1.3 OBJECTIVES 1.3.1 1.3.2 GENERAL OBJECTIVES ..2 SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES ...3

1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE S TUDY. 3 1.5 SCOPE AND LIMITATION ..3 1.6 DEFINITION OF TERMS .3-4 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE . .4-6 DISCUSSION...6-8 CONCLUSION... ..9 RECOMMENDATION 9 REFERENCE 9

II. III. IV. V. VI.

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TYPHOON SENDONG OCCURRENCE AN AVENGE OF ENCHANTED BEINGS NOT TRUE. I.INTRODUCTION 1.1 BACKGROUND Typhoon is a natural phenomenon. It is a tropical storm with violent winds. On the 16 day of December 2011 a tremendous typhoon hit the southern part of the Philippines specifically the northern part in Mindanao which are the places of Iligan City and Cagayan de Oro City. The tropical storm is named Sendong by the PAGASA, international code name is Washi. Mindanao is an island in the Philippines that is seldom gets hit by a typhoon that causes devastation and lost of lives. If ever, what it gets is the tail-end of the storm that brings slight winds and rains. Most typhoons in the Philippines originate from the eastern side and almost always make a landfall on either Luzon or the Visayas islands but not this time, however. Tropical storm Sendong brought 10 hours of torrential rains that triggered disastrous flash flooding over Mindanao, which then results to hundreds of missing, thousands of death, millions of damages and billions of destructions. This happening is really unexpected; no one is really prepared of the incident but no one also expected that this kind of event will happen. Due to the thinking that the region is unaccustomed to visits of typhoons and on the belief that the region is safe from landslides and floods, folks concluded that the occurrence of typhoon sendong was an avenge of dili-ingon-nato (not-like-us beings) or engkanto (enchanted beings). 1.2 Statement of the Problem This study is conducted to argue that it is not true that the Tropical storm Sendong occurrence is caused by enchanted beings. Specifically it aims to answer the following questions: 1. Is typhoon a Natural Phenomena? 2. Are there illegal activities present in the affected places? 3. Does geographical location worsen the flood? 1.3 Objectives 1.3.1 A. General Objectives To prove that the typhoon Sendong occurrence is not an avenge of Enchanted beings.
th

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1.3.2 B. Specific Objectives To know if there are illegal activities in the affected areas. To identify the geographical location of the affected areas. 1.4 Significance of the Study This study is important to alert the people, not just those Sendong victims but also those who have not been in a situation once. To wake the people about what human activity brings to the destruction of the Environment. This study can give the people the knowledge about Tropical storm; how it develops and what will make it fatal. It is important to know that calamities are not done by enchanted beings but rather because it is a natural calamity and that is made more destructive by the human activities. 1.5 Scope and Limitation This study is conducted in the affected areas of Typhoon Sendong, specifically: Barangay Tagbalogo in Naawan, Misamis Oriental. The scope of this research was limited only on the factors that make the Typhoon Sendong more fatal. The factors include the illegal activities present in the affected areas and the topography of the places. 1.6 Definition of Terms NDRRMC - National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council. PAGASA - Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Service Administration - inform people about the weather that we experience in our daily lives. Enchanted beings - one who enchants; a sorcerer or a magician; one who practices enchantment or pretends to perform surprising things by the agency of demons. Fatal bringing or ending in death. Geohazard Map map that identify areas that are prone to floods and landslides. Illegal activities - forbidden by law; unlawful; illicit Unauthorized or prohibited by a code of official or accepted rules.

Illegal Logging - cutting of trees that are unauthorized. Mining the process or industries of extracting minerals from earth.

Natural Phenomena - is not an engineered or orchestrated event manufactured by humans, although it may affect them (such as pathogens, aging, natural disasters, and death). Omen of Death a sign or warning of death. Quarrying digging of sand or stone for building. Torrential heavy downpour of rain Typhoon - Storm with violent winds. II. Review of Related Literature ISLA PRONE TO FLASHFLOOD Manila, Philippines In a radio interview with Environment Secretary Ramon Paje over my morning program in DWIZ 882 AM, he said that many converging factors contributed to the tragedy in Cagayan De Oro and Iligan over last weekend. In the case of Isla de Oro, for instance, which was swept away by the flash floods that swept through the two cities Friday night, Sec. Paje said that a similar tragedy occurred in 2009 on the very same place. Isla de Oro is situated at the mouth of the Cagayan De Oro river and is not a real island but a sand bar, according to Sec. Paje. The island was formed due to the accumulation of silt in the river and DENR has denied previous requests to turn the place into a residential area owing to the findings that the area is highly susceptible to flash flooding and allowing people to live there would be letting people to be in harms way or in Sec. Pajes own words, Ilalagay lang natin sila sa bingit ng kamatayan. DENRs geo hazard map has marked the area as flash-flood prone and is therefore unsuitable for human habitation. The topography of the surrounding area contributed as well Cagayan De Oro sits below mountainous Bukidnon. Water rushes naturally from Bukidnon through Cagayan De Oro, whose whitewater rafting activities is a major tourist attraction. Sendong brought in 180mm of rainfall, or over a months worth of rain, in just 24 hours and the result is a literal deluge. Another contributing factor is illegal logging which runs rampant in those parts despite energetic efforts by the government to eradicate it. Some 8 million board feet of confiscated illegal logs out of the national total of 10.7 million came from CARAGA. Apart from these, climate change is compounding the problem. Changing weather patterns make it challenging to predict where disaster will strike. Areas where little rain used to fall may be inundated with precipitation and normally wet areas may receive little rain due to these changes. Sec.

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Paje said that it would help if local officials consult the geo-hazard maps from DENR and for people to be ready to be prepared for the effects of climate change. Omen of death Old folk tales of avenging dili ingon nato (not-like-us beings) or engkanto (enchanted beings)? A native of Pugaan said that it was an old belief that the boat, especially one that goes not to the sea but to the mountain, was an omen of death. The review of logging, mining and quarrying policies, permits and regulations is once again being talked about as part of the need to update a natural resource-use policy. Mujiv Hataman, acting governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, has ordered a total log ban, issued a moratorium on the issuance of private land-timber permits, tapped the Task Force Ranao for the campaign, closed down a number of sawmills in Lanao del Sur, and charged a number of individuals with illegal logging. Mayor Cruz has ordered a review of mining and quarrying permits. Among other things, Amarille recommends the dredging of the Mandulog River delta. Echavez says disaster-preparedness training is a must. The to-do list aimed at avoiding another tragedy is long. But it has to be done. Else, an old man or woman or a young girl may again see the omen (Minerva Generalao). MGB urged to recall CDO, Iligan mining exploration permits CAGAYAN DE ORO CITYNorthern Mindanao leaders on Friday urged the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) to recall mineral exploration permits (EPs) it issued to mining firms eyeing the hinterlands of this city and nearby Iligan City for mineral extraction, specifically for gold and iron. In a resolution, the advisory committee of the Regional Development Council (RDC) said the tragedy wrought by Tropical Storm Sendong two months ago was enough warning against exploitation of the natural resources of the two cities. The advisory committee is composed of the chairs and cochairs of RDC standing committees plus the 14 legislators representing the congressional districts throughout the region, said Iligan Mayor Lawrence Cruz, who chairs the RDC. The MGB has admitted that it has issued several EPs in the region.

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Alfredo Relampagos, MGB technical director for Northern Mindanao, said four of the EPs were issued for areas in this city and one in Iligan City. An EP, he said, allows a mining company to prospect for an economically viable amount of mineral reserves in a particular area. If the prospect is good, the company can apply for either a mineral production sharing agreement or a financial and technical assistance agreement depending on the size of the minerals prospect, he said. Relampagos, however, said there were no massive diggings during the exploration stage. Even then, Cagayan de Oro Representative Rufus Rodriguez, who sponsored the resolution, said the recall of the EPs would send a signal to mining investors that the areas of the two cities were not open to mining. Relampagos told the RDC members that the greatest threat to the hinterlands, for example in this city, is the so-called small-scale hydraulic mining operations. III. Discussion Superstitious, thats what we Filipino are, we inclined to believe in superstition, but what was superstition by the way? Superstition is a belief in supernatural causality: that one event leads to the cause of another without any physical process linking the two events, such as astrology, omens, witchcraft, etc. that contradicts natural science. One of the proofs that we Filipino are really superstitious is the calamity or the Typhoon that strikes the Northern Mindanao last December 16, 2011. Folks in the Mindanao region believed that it was an avenge of enchanted beings. A native in Pugaan said that it was an old belief that the boat, especially one that goes not to the sea but to the mountain, was an omen of death. Another folks in Barangay Tagbalogo,Naawan, Misamis Oriental told that they have seen a white and a black boat , before and during the tragedy. Some folks said that the boat was manned by enchanted beings. Was the belief probably true? One thing is for sure, Typhoon is a natural phenomenon. A typhoon is a region-specific term given to a type of tropical cyclone, usually occurring within the northwestern region of the Pacific Ocean, west of the International Date Line. These same systems in other regions are referred to as either hurricanes, or more generally, tropical cyclones. The center of a cyclone is referred to as the eye. The eye is a circular area of calm, fair weather. On average, a tropical cyclone eye is about 30 miles across. Surrounding the eye are eyewalls which are regions of dense convective clouds. The winds of eyewalls are the highest and generally cause the most damage.

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Spiraling into the eyewalls are more convective cloud regions referred to as spiral bands. These areas contain heavy winds and extend out from the typhoon eye. In order to occur, tropical cyclones generally require ocean temperatures of at least 80 F. The systems begin with heat generated from spiraling water vapor in the atmosphere. This spiraling vapor forms into the convective clouds. Typhoon incidence rate is correlated with sea-surface temperature. Because of this, there may be a connection between global warming and tropical cyclones; as the temperature of the waters increase, so does the incidence of tropical cyclones. It is very common for typhoons to bring heavy rainfall, about 508 to 786 mm to a locality. This heavy rainfall usually results in disastrous floods. What was flood by the way? Flood is defined as the inundation of places not normally submerged in water. Excessive rainfall within a short period of time brought by typhoons is the most common cause of floods. (Santiago et al., 1996) . But floods get more fatal by the illegal activities. Media identified three culprits of the massive flooding cause by the typhoon Sendong, these are the illegal logging, mining and quarrying, which are present in the affected places of the typhoon. In Barangay Tagbalogo, Misamis Oriental and among other places in Iligan City and Cagayan de Oro, one can clearly see the bald mountains cause by the forest destruction. The worlds forests are now being depleted at a rate faster than we can imagine. The Philippines, for example, has about 30 million hectares of land. Out of this, 18 million hectares are eligible forest land. 50 years ago, we had 15 hectares of virgin forests. 25 years ago, these were only reduce to only 4.5 million hectares and in the 1980s we barely have a million hectares of virgin forests. We lost more than 70 percent of our forests! Trees are cut down at a rate of 17 trees per hour (Deauna, 1998). That was almost 15 years ago or more. Could you imagine, how much more, now? Some of the causes of Forest destruction are the Slash-and-Burn Agriculture and the logging. Slash-and-Burn Agriculture, or the commonly known practice of Kaingin accounts for about 25 percent of the total forest destruction. Poverty and landlines drive some people to cultivate forests for agricultural purposes, employing the Kaingin method. Logging, cutting of trees for commercial purposes, especially for export, contributes heavily to forest destruction. This logging industry is intensified by our exportoriented economic policy. As what science journalist Ernesto Lawagan said The extent of the disaster brought about by Typhoon Sendong in Southern Philippines was magnified because most of the forests in that region were heavily denuded due to logging and mining, yeah! Aside from logging, there is also mining. Mining industries that were obviously present the affected areas, as what Ramos of NDRRMC told in an interview, that the President have observed that the worst-hit of flooding are the areas where there is mining operations. Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, lode, vein, (coal) seam or reef, which forms the mineralized horizon and package of economic

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interest to the miner. Obviously as what have been told in most of the Philippine geography books, Philippines is a rich in mineral country, just like gold, silver, manganese and others. Philippines is even 3
rd

in the leading exporter of gold. But what people do not know is that mining also contributes to the destruction of our environments. Its effects are indeed hazardous. Environmental issues can include erosion, formation of sinkholes, loss of biodiversity, and contamination of soil, groundwater and surface water by chemicals from mining processes. In some cases, additional forest logging is done in the vicinity of mines to increase the available room for the storage of the created debris and soil.
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Contamination

resulting from leakage of chemicals can also affect the health of the local population if not properly controlled. Quarrying is a type of open-pit mine from which rock or minerals are extracted. Quarries are generally used for extracting building materials, such as dimension stone, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, and gravel. Brig. Gen. Roland Amarille, commander of Task Force Makalintad said the logs from illegal logging along Kapai and Bayog Rivers, and mud from illegal mining along Bayog River accumulated at Mandulog River, where they were mixed with more mud from illegal quarrying along the Mandulog River, and that when the mix of logs, mud and debris clogged the Hinaplanon Bridge in Iligan, it turned the bridge into something like a dam which diverted the flow of tons of logs, mud, trees and eroded debris, and flooded other areas along the river. In Amarille statement, we can foresee the linkages of the 3 culprits, Logging, Mining and Quarrying; obviously these three have made the flood a lot more fatal. Geographical location, does this really have something to do in the thousands deaths in the catastrophic event of Sendong? Many people seem to think that humans can live anywhere they want to. But a smart Grade 6 student should be able to tell you that an area known as a flood plain always surrounds rivers. The flood plain of the river is an area close to it that is regularly flooded during heavy rains. It is therefore imperative for the government to disallow people from buying land and building homes within this area. Both local and national government, however, did nothing to prevent many people from building their houses close to the rivers of Lanao del Norte and Misamis Oriental. Department of Environment and Natural Resources Mines and Geosciences Bureau (DENR MGB), Geohazard map, shown that Isla de Oro and among other 25 barangays in Cagayan de oro City,is indeed a flood-prone area. Same as to Barangay Hinaplanon in Iligan City. Barangay Tagbalogo in Misamis Oriental is another case since it is not a flood-prone area, but rather thus has a highsusceptibility in Landslide. This tragedy might happen again in the future. We must stop pinpointing whos to be blame, whether its a doing of an enchanted being or blaming our national or local government, we must put in our mind, that we are all responsible to whatever calamities that have hit us. Whats the best thing we can do is to prevent the typhoon fatalities. We must be prepared for whatever calamities that may strike us. As the saying goes an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Let us be concerned on what was happening in our Environment. Environment and Society is indeed a give and take relationship.

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IV. Conclusion Based on the Facts presented. It is proven that the occurrence of Typhoon Sendong is not an avenge of Enchanted beings. This is due to the fact, that a Typhoon is a natural phenomenon. That it is made worse and a lot more fatal by the illegal activities present in the affected areas, which are, the Illegal logging, mining and quarrying. And that the geographical location or the topography of places contributed to the damages and destruction and loss of lives. V. Recommendation 1. To the students who will conduct a research, they could study whether the global warming has something to do in the occurrence of Typhoon. 2. To the local and national officials, they must have strict implementations of laws regarding the mining industries. 3. To the community, they must choose a place that is really safe and suitable for settlement. VI. References A. Aquino M., Camorena M., Contreras L., Dorado S., Retando E., Santiago F. (1996). Environmental Science (a shared responsibility towards Earth). Manila: Rex Printing Company, Inc. B. DEPARTMENT GEOSCIENCES OF ENVIRONMENT R-10 AND NATURAL OF THE RESOURCES MGB RAPID MINES AND

BUREAU

RESULTS

GEOHAZARD

ASSESSMENT OF BARANGAYS IN ILIGAN CITY, LANAO DEL NORTE. Retrieved. September 12, 2012. http://MGBRAPID GEOHAZARD ASSESSTMENT.html

C. RESULTS OF THE MGB RAPID GEOHAZARD ASSESSMENT OF BARANGAYS IN CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, MISAMIS ORIENTAL. Retrieved. September 12, 2012. http://MGBRAPID GEOHAZARD ASSESSTMENT.html D. Minerva Generalao (February 4, 2012). How the Iligan disaster happened. Philippine Daily Inquirer. E. Pecier Decierdo (December 23,2011). Typhoon Sendong and the Necessity of Scientific Literacy in the Philippines. Freethinking Community. F. JB R. Deveza (December 24, 2011).Cagayan de Oro twice warned of floods. Inquirer Mindanao. G. http://www.President Aquinos statement on the aftermath of Tropical Storm Sendong, December 20, 2011 [English] _ Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines.html

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A RESEARCH PAPER FOR GEOLOGY. Okey, hope this will help. I passed this one to my Professor, so please, if you happen to just Copy-Paste. Spare me please. We might be on the same school and have the same professor. Just Imagine that! And its consequences. Obviously, I am located somewhere near these places. So, Good Luck! Haggard na much, Pen_Tura