THE HEAVENS appear to have heard the northern and central Luzon prayers for long, hard rains to save parched farmlands and drying dam reservoirs from a most disastrous drought – the first in some two decades – hitting this agricultural part of the Philippines.

Rains aplenty have been pouring on the northern and central Luzon plains since Monday, some three weeks after a worried national government assumed a crisis mode over the inability of farmers in the regions to transplant their seedlings because of the absence of rains to moisten the soil.

Farmers under normal weather patterns should have already planted their palay as early as June, especially the rainfed areas.

Tropical depression Chedeng entered the Philippine area of responsibility and brought on the rains since Monday and a subsequent low pressure area, coming soon after Chedeng exited middle of the week, continued the torrential rains till today, Thursday.

“It’s like a deep wish fulfilled after some suspense for farmers, dam operators and civilians caught in the sweltering heat of the unusual prolonged dry spell, ” a local official almost gushed.

Until late last week, anxious national agricultural officials led by Secretary ArthurYap had resorted to sending up fixed-wing light aircrafts of the Armed Forces to do cloud-seeding, costing government over a million for each flight operation.

The palliative solution brought on some rains but hardly enough to fill dams to normal levels or turn the caked soil in farmlands wet enough for planting.

Yap, while inspecting the San Roque Dam in San Manuel, Pangasinan, touted as one of the biggest dams in Asia today and finding its reservoir way, way below normal level, had ordered the dam management to release some water from its holds for at least two weeks down to the lowlands to help farmers plant their fields.

He said it was a choice between having water to generate power thru the dams or helping farmers save their rotting seedlings and planting these for harvest at least before December for general survival.

With nature intervening thru the sudden, sustained downpour, the “two-week” critical wait period seems to have been – blessedly – cut short.