Asked friend Jose Almendares, the provincial agriculturist, what preparations his office was undertaking to mitigate the effects of La Niña to agriculture.

“We’re actually preparing for El Niño,” he said, straight-faced. You never know when this guy is joking or if he is, yes, joking. He’s a serious worker, but he’s always a happy guy. Read more

The ugly episode that happened in St. Bernard in Southern Leyte is almost fading from the pages of newspapers. But I hope our collective memories of the landslide which obliterated a village and buried about a thousand people in minutes, will linger and drive the authorities to prevent similar catastrophes from ever happening again.I just read in the Inquirer (http://www.inq7.net) a report written by Nestor Burgos Jr. about an Iloilo village closely being watched for landslides. There have been continuing occurrences of minor landslide in Umingan village in Alimodian town, Burgos reported.Closer to home, at least two villages in eastern Pangasinan could be victims of landslides, too.Wendy Co, community environment and natural resources officer of eastern Pangasinan, said she has asked the Department of Environment and Natural Resources Mines and GeoSciences to study the geologic formation of the mountains and land in Tacnien, a sub-village of Sand Domingo in San Manuel town. Read more