CABAGAN, ISABELA — Gov. Rodolfo Albano III of Isabela was widely criticized on social media here after he called on residents in radio interviews on Friday, November 8, to just “chill” and do more prayers instead, just as Uwan — now a super typhoon — was inching closer to the province.
Albano — who was actually about to leave the country on an official leave during Friday’s interview — a matter which was only widely known only on Sunday during a press briefing by the Department of Interior and Local Government in Cagayan Valley (DILG-2) — was vilified online for his choice of words.
DILG-2 spokesperson Liberty Barcena said on Sunday that Albano was among two governors currently out of the country on official travel leave, which were filed and approved weeks before the onset of Uwan. The other governor was Ronald “Jun” Aguto of Batanes.
In a radio interview, Albano was asked: “What are the measures the province will take in view of the coming typhoon?”
The governor replied that the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration or “Pagasa is always like that. Sometimes it causes anxiety to build up. It can cause people to get nervous. For me, just chill. There is nothing we can do about it. There is nothing we can do since the typhoon is heading our way and only God can stop it… We can’t build a Noah’s Ark that can give a ride to everyone.”
Netizen Jaymee Rodriguez, in a social media post, said he was dismayed that the governor did not feel the grief of people who had previously been flooded and lost their homes, belongings and farms.
“Because they don’t know the feeling of being flooded. They don’t know the feeling of losing your home, belongings, and clothes because of what the flood took away. They haven’t experienced having your roof fly off and your house destroyed. Sigh, while they are chilling, we poor people don’t know what to do or how to survive each disaster that comes,” he said in Filipino.
For former educator Rica Grace Ocfemia-Manuel, the governor’s “just chill” comment showed lack of empathy for the people of his province. “Check your privilege, Governor,” she added.
Jeduard Bernardo, another Isabela villager, posted online: “Sometimes, leaders express sentiments out of wanting to calm people — and I understand that anxiety during typhoon updates can really rise, especially in Isabela where there would be yearly (actually, nearly monthly) rains, floods and storms. But during these times, public communication matters a lot. Words shape mindset. Leaders especially in disaster-prone provinces need to model precaution not complacency. Leaders guide how people prepare, react, and stay safe.”
He said that the weather agency’s warnings were not meant to “scare” but “help us anticipate risks and act early.”
“Calmness is good — (but) ‘calm preparedness’ is better than ‘just chill.’ The best form of leadership in the disaster season is not fatalism, but readiness: coordinated [local government unit] response, informed citizens, and proactive protection of communities,” he added.
Bernardo believed that the country needs “leaders whose words turn worry into preparedness, not into passivity. As a province that knows how painful disasters can be, we should not get used to saying, ‘There’s nothing we can do.’ We can always do something. Prevention, information, at early action — that’s what we need during these times.”
Netizen Harry Lloyd Palangao said advising people to just pray would be easy for the governor as he has a sturdy house. But “how about your constituents who don’t have that kind of protection, Governor?” he added.
Reached by the Inquirer by phone late on Saturday to ask for his reaction to the online criticisms against him, the governor gave a short comment before hanging up the phone: “I don’t care about them. I don’t read their comments. Thank you.”
However, the governor’s former provincial administrator, lawyer Noel Manuel Lopez, came to his defense in his Facebook post.
Lopez said the governor’s reaction to the Pagasa forecast was not “the whimper of a defeated man, but the realism of a leader who has stared down nature’s worst and refused to flinch nor surrender in fear.”
He claimed that the governor “offers neither false comfort nor hollow bravado, only the hard-won truth that some storms will come, and they will come definitely regardless of utmost preparation, which the (Isabela government) always do and meeting them with steady nerves is as vital as sandbags and sirens.” /das
