I Miss Albay’s Blue Skies

By Dr. Fay Lea Patria M. Lauraya, President, Bicol University, 1-11-11

“Rain, rain go away, come again another day. “ Never had this childhood rhyme became more appropriate than during these past two weeks when the Province of Albay had experienced continuous downpour of rains. We planned so many outdoor activities for the holidays when family members came home to celebrate but ended up huddled inside our homes echoing our childhood rhyme.

We are not alien to wet November and Decembers. In fact these are months of typhoons and we always expect the worst. However, after each heavy downpour we are treated to sunny skies that seem to affirm that there is always bright hope after every difficulty, the secret of our resiliency. This time however it is different, it rains and it rains, and it rains… without the clouds clearing the skies, gloominess hovering above us endlessly.

Albay is known for its extra ordinary skies, immortalized in the Albay hymn whose lines describe that it is a province where the skies are bluer. It could be the blue and green shade of towering Mayon Volcano that lends its colors to our sky. And now we have not seen that blue skies for days. Instead, dark clouds had taken over Its beauty, maintaining same shade of gray no matter what time of day it is , so thick that even the mighty sun could not penetrate.

Only the brave pilots dared to break through these clouds. Cancellation of flights had become an ordinary event frustrating many travelers, wrecking havoc on well laid out events and engagements. My travel to Laog to take part in the Memorandum of Agreement Signing for the Consortium for Meteorology Education and Training (COMET) under the initiative of Agham Party List is one of those events. There are four universities in the country, Mariano Marcos State Universiy in the North, Central Luzon State University for Central Luzon, Bicol University for Southern Luzon and Visayas State University in the Visayas together with DOST SEI and Agham Party List are forming a consortium to offer the BS in Meteoriology. This was in response to the challenge of Albay Governor Joey Salceda and the vision of Agham Party List Congressman Angelo Palmones. Bicol University is a signatory to the COMET despite the rains preventing my presence in that historical event. Finally, I was able to leave on Sunday, Jan 9 to attend the MOU signing at Camp Crame to renew our commitment to provide Peace Education program course to the PNP, now under the leadership of Police General Director Bacalzo a BU Ph. D graduate batch 2010. On my way back on board Cebu Pacific Flight last Monday, 10 minutes before landing at Legaspi City airport, the pilot announced that the deteriorating weather in Legaspi would not allow the plane to land. The plane seemed to stay motionless on air and during the 15 minutes or so that we were stationary on board, the pilot took the plane above the clouds that gave me a wonderful view of Albay’s blue skies. It was a reassuring thought that “it” was still there, only covered by thick clouds that bar our view from below. Albay’s blue skies remain bluer beyond the clouds, beyond our view but it is still there.

What were my thoughts? Albay’s climate as described in our science books is defined as no defined dry or wet season. We enjoy short periods of rain and sunny days continuously. Never did we experience prolonged rain and dark clouds for days and weeks until now. Is this part of what we now expect to happen as climate change? Will our view of Albay’s blue skies be gone for weeks or longer?

As chairperson of the Sagumayon River Council, I preside over the meetings of representatives of barangays where this significant river traverses, crossing the town of Daraga and Legaspi City both in Albay Province. In one of those meetings, I asked one barangay council chairperson who was in his early 50s how the River looked like in the old days. He said that in his childhood days, the river was a place where they could play, catch fish and swim for hours. Now he has to deter his own children from even tiptoeing in the riverside for fear of pollution from all kinds of garbage dumped into the river.

Will our Albay blue skies suffer the same fate? Will we remember it simply from the words of Albay Forever hym, or from paintings or stories we will tell our children? If this is what climate change will cost us, there is really reason to wonder what the future holds, to be nostalgic.

As University President, I am committed to aggressively pursue policies to make BU a green University. It might be a small contribution to mitigate cause of climate change but a long way to educate our youth of the significance to act now and adapt our way of life. We are also creating Conservation Farming as centerpiece of our extension program to protect our upland areas, promote farming practices for climate adaptation and reduce erosion of our mountains. It will also focus on livelihood promotion for adaptive agriculture and fisheries. There is much to be done to preserve Albay’s blue skies.

Let us not allow climate change to cover up our blue skies. As the Albay Forever Hym goes… “it’s a place where the skies are bluer, this is Albay our own dear land.”

Dr. Fay Lea Patria M. Lauraya, President, Bicol University, 1-11-11