Terrible Milenyo -

As many have experience or read (those not affected esp in other countries) this is one of the worst typhoons which hit metro manila. Good thing Pag-Asa weather bureau had new instruments which enabled them to inform the public a day before of the impending extra strong storm.

Power was out since Thursday. Normally outages last not more than 24 hours. In paranaque, where I live, there is no power till this writing.

Tried booking a hotel last saturday for I can no longer stand the heat and darkness but whether it be the most luxurious hotel or smallest one they are all booked! Cant sleep over my makati condo for even if a generator runs the bldg, its still hot. Just went there to charge my phones and two laptops yesterday.

Saturday morning I learned that my condo had power so I immediately packed my bags and moved to makati temporarily.

Since radio was my only link to the world, I found out about lots of programs I have never heard before. I am more of a tv person than radio. Of course I listened to the two major stations, DZBB of GMA and DZMM of abs-cbn.

I noticed though that DZMM tries to always protect meralco. Obviously they have the same owner! I learned then to also listen to their competitor which gives out more impartial views of the situation.

Its practically sunday right now (at past midnight). Almost four days of darkness. I do understand the tons of trees, debris and gigantic billboards which lined the streets but as of yesterday they were almost cleaned up. I heard though that since Meralco just outsources the repair job, they were not able to muster enough personnel to fix all the problems since past projects were not yet paid. Hmmm sounds believable.

It sure sounds so great when you listen to the news that almost all power has been restored. When you pass roxas blvd however, pasay city, most parts in makati, paranaque, las pinas, alabang etc all you see at night is complete darkness!

If they announced 50 percent restoration then I may believe it but 80 percent???

I cannot even relate all the havock in my sked this outage has brought. Of course when you listen to the radio, esp the station owned by the same owners of the power company, you will hear stuff such as, its better to get back to the basics sometimes, you learn to relax, etc etc and all that hullaballoo.

Reality though tells us hey where are the people supposed to repair the electricals??? I actually didnt find any on the streets! Maybe they were somewhere below the bowels of the earth so I didnt see them.