As usual, I took a window seat in the hope that I could espy our various islands as we made that short flight down the length of our archipelago. But except for the segment from Bohol to Cagayan de Oro, all I could see outside my window were the dark rain clouds spawned by Egay, rain clouds that dumped their cargo with a vengeance on Metro Manila as I roamed the hot and humid streets of CDO at around 9 a.m.

I was half amused and half concerned receiving texts about zero visibility in Metro Manila while taking a trip around CDO, enjoying its sights and marveling at the new mansion that businessman Jose "Pepito" Alvarez had built on a hillside in the outskirts of the city.

After our aircraft broke through the clouds while descending over Mactan, allowing me to finally see the island of Mindanao looming in the distance, it struck me that our archipelago is beset by stormy weather – in the literal sense for the northern part of our country, and in the figurative sense for the southern part.

The three typhoons that have skirted our islands have, however, spawned the southwest monsoon over Luzon and parts of the Visayas – an answer, in a way, to prayers for an end to the dry spell, but itself also a cause for widespread material damage and human hardships.

For parts of Mindanao, on the other hand, the stormy weather comes in the form of hostilities, hostilities that have resulted in a new generation of widows and orphans without however any clear sense of determination to see the war to its logical end.

Then, later in the afternoon of Wednesday, I started receiving text messages about people stranded due to flooded streets – and because I was in Cagayan de Oro I needed to turn on the television set to see video footages of just that. In contrast, Cagayan de Oro was partly cloudy, with the sun beaming down on most of the city. I couldn’t help but notice how starkly contrasting were the experiences of Metro Manilans to the Cagayanons, provoking in me the thought of buying a small parcel of land in CDO where I can almost be free of typhoons and floods!

As if to show us how bad things could be, Mother Nature then struck a quarter around the globe, with Lima, the capital city of Peru, experiencing two earthquakes with an estimated magnitude of 7.7. Imagine a 7.7 earthquake! I remember being at EDSA and Buendia Avenue waiting for a bus ride back to the UP College of Law, when that deadly earthquake struck in 1990 that caused untold human misery and material damage. And to think that that was a 7.7 magnitude earthquake. A woman being interviewed by CNN after the quake apologized for her trembling voice; she said she had never experienced such a long shaking of the earth all her life, and as she was speaking by mobile phone to the CNN anchor she admitted being in her car parked outside her home, waiting to see if aftershocks would hit.

Then Japan – across the Pacific, – reported its own earthquake (which are a dime a dozen in the Japanese islands), while Indonesia reported the eruption of a volcano. Here, our streets became extensions of our clogged esteros and not even the President of the Philippines was spared.

Indeed, when nature strikes, there is very little we humans can do but pray. Then again, the damage that nature brings us is compounded by the damage we ourselves have wrought on nature.

The question is: can we still undo the damage, assuming we have the time?

***

Greetings to the crew of PR 181 that took me from Manila to Cagayan de Oro last August 15. I was pleasantly surprised that the aircraft had brand new interiors, with really comfortable seats in Mabuhay class equipped with a far more advanced personal video system compared to what the A-330 and A-340 aircraft have.

The aircraft was ably piloted by Capt. Benjamin Gutierrez with First Officer Keenan Gensolin assisting. Serving us passengers were Enrico Gutang and King Bustos in Mabuhay class, and Eileen Nepomuceno and Mike Visaya in Fiesta class.

I expected my return flight on PR 182 a day later to be bumpy, given the dire warnings of a second day of rains and flooded streets, warning which forced government to suspend classes. But I was wrong. The only little bumps we experienced were somewhere between Cebu and Panay, and our plane glided smoothly down past the seven lakes of San Pablo after reaching the Batangas coast then approaching the airport from the Antipolo area.

Again, the A320-200 I boarded had vastly improved interiors, although the seats were not equipped with personalized videos, this aircraft having been one of the first brand new A320s to be delivered. (I must get to memorize their registry numbers!). But the crew was, as usual, ready, willing and able to serve – from the pilot, Capt. Rafael Perez and his F/O, Jaime Magsino, to the cabin attendants Pepper Osias and Josant Cervantes (for Mabuhay) and Alaine Chua and Jan Uichico for Fiesta class.

PAL is clearly past its low point, and if the brand new planes are any indication PAL loyalists like me can look forward to continuous improvement in its aircraft and its services. Actually, I have never had any major issues with PAL except for the fact that at some destinations it doesn’t matter whether your luggage has a priority tag on them, which prevents you from claiming your checked-in luggage early and dashing off to a meeting, seminar or convention. But its staff has always been more than ready to be of assistance, most often with a smile and the warmth that the airline has long been known for.

Mabuhay!