Sitting ducks for disaster

WHAT’s worse than being a sitting duck? It’s being one without doing something about it. Fortunately for ducks, they actually have the option to fly. But for a country like the Philippines, we stay sitting — just in that part of the world where natural disasters are most likely to occur.

Since time immemorial, our location has ever been our foremost advantage. Our geographic proximity to many ancient nations like, China, Japan, Korea and Indonesia make us logistically convenient for trade, commerce and immigration. Long before Magellan “discovered” the archipelago, neighboring kingdoms and sultanates found their way to the islands we now call the Philippines. When the Europeans ventured west on wind-powered galleons, the northeast trade winds delivered them straight to our doorstep. During World War 2, our location proved a strategic advantage for the Americans, due to our proximity to Japan and the South Pacific.