Tina Palma of ABS-CBN News said this afternoon how Typhoon Ondoy's devastation of Manila was so unprecedented. With all the destruction and mayhem that was caused, I was in fact thinking whether Manila had been ravaged like this even once before.

Seeing the aftermath of the storm on television, it should be the worst catastrophe to ever hit Manila, aside from the WWII bombings it had suffered in 1945.

Two days after the storm, it becomes clearer and clearer now how utterly ravaging Ondoy was, dead bodies piling up, whole villages submerged and automobiles mowed and thrown overboard by rushing floodwater. It was the worse ever. Six months worth of rain falling in just one night, it was that horrendous.

That way, Typhoon Ondoy was so unexpected, it came on a weekend when people do not usually watch news or hear about them. It was hidden like a silent traitor, absolutely unforeseen.

Maybe next time, every incoming storm should be noteworthy for precaution and warning. And of course, preparedness for eventuality in such condition.

Experts say that storms are very hard to predict and estimate beforehand concerning its real strength and the amount of water it carries, despite advancement in geological technology.

Even in advance countries like in the US, scientists there are still not absolute about their knowledge of storm.

But I hope --- as everyone of us would--- if only it is up to us, that nothing like this would ever happen again and that in such event that storms as vicious as this ever comes to our shore again, that there'll be enough forewarning so that the populace be fully prepared for it..

I came across a very informative article of former NEDA chief Cielito Habito “Where Did the Growth Come From?”, discussing the very current debacle of global recession and how the Philippines have somehow found a way to snuggle away from it, insulating itself from it effectively and even posting growth figures as opposed to other contracting economies worldwide. This situation had even gained the Philippines some notable commendations from veritable financial institutions abroad.

However, Mr. Habito pointed out mainly to 'government spending' as the main and only instigator of such growth, increasing demand through construction activities thereby allowing job generation as such. In fact, significant sectors like agriculture and manufacturing had contracted or decreased.

This tells us how fragile is the basis of our economic growth even to the extent of artificiality, when purely government spending is mostly depended on and none much else. As Mr. Habito had pointed out, increased government spending means increased government debt and this is not a good situation at all.

Somehow, this kind of strategy is deemed commendable as even America implements the so-called stimulus fund to augur in public consumption, in order to enthuse market activities. It was smart maneuvering on the part of our government.

Although in simpler mathematics, it would still be a negative. How long can we lift up the economy using artificial means and planned intervention?

Public consumption aside from those generated by government spending should be instigated by all means.

Mr. Habito views the housing sector to be one good area where government should focus on as it has that multiplier effect of generating more jobs (being labor intensive) and encouraging increased manufacturing activities.

Even Malacañang seems especially daunted with the now official Noynoy Aquino-Mar Roxas tandem for next year’s presidential elections, now that Senator Roxas has officially accepted the vice-presidential candidacy slot for the Liberal Party, presumably through the personal invitation of Noynoy himself.

Actually the team not merely daunting, what with the recent survey results out, the duo could be quite formidable --- not merely a winning team but one that could be unbeatable.

In the days of old, we used to say about up and coming politicians to be “so young and yet so corrupt”, but these two young candidates are “so young and yet so capable”.

If the two can hold their cards well, not bungling their chances just for several months from now, then they’d surely find themselves sitting in the palace by the river next year.

Well of course, none of this election thing should be considered a done deal and deemed final not unless, as they say, the fat lady sings. We still have to have an election on May of next year for one.

Despite the roaring entrance of Noynoy Aquino into the election fray, other candidacies remain to be on the radar, waiting for the banana skin that could lay to naught the Aquino-Roxas team.

For one, the administration bet in Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro becomes now a wise selection as his qualifications and intellectual capacity comes now to the forefront, his exceptional academic achievements slowly seeping into the public consciousness.

Also, Senator Many Villar – the erstwhile topnotcher in polls and surveys before Noynoy came into the scene --- is still looming large out there, still looking for that lucky break (or lucky combination) and desperately aiming to escape the stranglehold of a recent real-state controversy that had suddenly stained what was once an impeccable motive and intention to run for the presidency.

Senator Chiz Escudero on the one hand is still out there flaunting the very wide and sizable networks that he had built from the grassroots in the past several years, through frequent countrywide visits and guesting sorties, and not to forget his very brisk Internet networking activities. That aside from his well-known reputation for boisterous outcries against anomalies in the present government.

And who else, uhmn, maybe former President Estrada still holds that celebrity charisma that had catapulted him to the topmost position of this land in 1998.

It could be a wide open race, despite the ferocious strength and railroading entrance of Liberal Party’s Noynoy Aquino-Mar Roxas presidential team.

Decades after the so-called “Cold War Era” had perceived to be ended; right about the time when the former U.S.S.R. was dissolved by Perestroika and Glasnost, here we are again hearing some kind of buzz about arms build-up from America and then from Russia, with U.S. President Barack Obama starting it all with an announcement of a missile defense system aimed at shielding Europe, purportedly from Russia and its close allies.

Isn’t this some kind of a nuclear déjà vu?

What comes to mind immediately is the almost mythical but flimsy “Star Wars” shield program or otherwise known as Strategic Defense Initiative of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, a hollywoodish grand ambition of networking the skies with military satellites, those that could supposedly anticipate and neutralize any major nuclear strike against America.

Of course Russia immediately felt threatened by the Obama missile defense plan in Europe that it almost automatically announced that it would likewise be deploying Iskander missiles in Poland, in order to counter what it perceived to be as an apparent threat to its security.

President Obama had to cancel the missile defense plan so that Russia would backed-off from the missile deployment in Poland. Now, that’s more like it. Tensions would have gone high and relations between the two nuclear giants would have deteriorated to a great extent.

All’s well that ends well.

Yet, I could deeply infer on the whole situation as there could be more profane motives other than what we see on the surface of this issue. The fact that it was planned at all --- the Europe missile defense plan should be a high indication that volatility within that region is still high. Such plan could have probably been instigated and resultant of incisive intelligence data gathered or why else would America put it up over there if Russia is as lame as we all thought it to be at present --- harmless like a sheep. Just when we all thought that Russia was not an enemy but a friend of America, it’s coming up as if it is becoming a monster once again, threatening to gobble up Europe. For wealth or power --- we exactly could not know.

Or maybe President Obama just wanted to play the role of grand old American presidents of years past, talking big in terms of missiles and nuclear warheads, ala Reagan or Nixon. Could he be so inclined in opening old wounds with Russia?

America voted for him because the population there had gotten so turned-off by former President George W. Bush’s perceived warmongering in Iraq and elsewhere. Why would he be so careless in instigating an arms race --- that’s the least the world needs right now.

We hope President Obama chooses so well and very deliberately the international actions that he makes; and he shouldn’t be playing missile games.