By DANNY O. SAGUN

WE are all reeling now from the unabated soaring prices of gasoline products. Premium gas is now pegged at P50 per liter and based on reports we expect more price increases of fuel products in the coming days. Gloom is painted in all faces especially for us here who were devastated by super howler Cosme.

Where would all this lead? We can only hope we will survive knowing the Filipino trait of resiliency in times of despair and crisis. And we also hope all will remain calm and sober and not resort to any desperate moves that will disturb the relative peace and tranquility we are yet in.
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We drove to San Fernando in La Union Monday to follow up a claim with Pag-ibig and we got surprised by the absence of a major damage left by typhoon Cosme, except for a few fallen trees, as we passed by Damortis.

Our observation was right. Cosme only got mad when it hito western Pangasinan coming from Zambales. It was so furious it toppled electric posts and trees, blew away roofs, and devastated all that got in the way, from the westernmost Infanta town bordering Zambales to Lingayen, and down to San Fabian. More than half of the province felt the typhoon’s ‘madness’, if we can call it that way.

Agoo showed nothing of any major damage as well as all the other towns of Aringay and Caba.

What Gading did in 1998 was repeated 10 years after, only that Cosme now was more powerful.

We repeat here the poser we had last week: Can Pagasa forecast the sudden change in strength of an ordinary typhoon as what happened to Gading and Cosme? What is it in the Lingayen Gulf area or in the South China Sea that can turn a typical storm into a real monster howler? A phenomenon really that cannot be explained as of now, we suppose.
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Two weeks after the calamity there are still several areas left unenergized. Some complain that the power utilities play favoritism. We understand. Life is different without electricity we have been used to.

In fairness to the utility companies or coops, they are really overwhelmed by the huge task at hand. They could not have imagined the extent of the damage to come courtesy of Cosme. Adding to their woes is theft of cables, wires and other equipment by unscrupulous people.

We think one month is a fair deal for them to restore power in all their service areas. After that, we guess can run after them.