AFTER days of unexpected downpours that left many students stranded, Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte has promised to reform the local government’s class suspension protocols.
Belmonte apologized to parents and students for the unwanted delay in announcing class suspensions, as highlighted in a letter to the mayor by high school student Daniel Tawing. The mayor appreciated the student’s honesty and thoughtful way of sharing his concerns, which she said was the “exact kind” of discourse that the local government hopes to see from the QCitizens. As a result, Belmonte told The Manila Times on Saturday that she immediately met with city department heads and district action officers to review the local government’s class suspension policy. Emphasizing students’ safety, she said the city government would further strengthen the alternative learning delivery mode to ensure that no student is left behind in lessons during a typhoon or bad weather. Moreover, she said they were also studying the conversion of barangay facilities, city libraries and parts of shopping malls into learning spaces whenever classes are suspended. In her reply to Tawing’s letter, the mayor admitted the limitation of data and forecasting against the actual situation on the ground.“Believe me, I understand where you are coming from. I know that when all is said and done, no scientific explanation or data can erase what our students experienced in the rain and flood. For that, I am deeply and truly sorry,” she said in Filipino. “At 4 a.m., when the decision had to be made for morning classes, there was no yellow rainfall warning for Metro Manila. Our sensors across the city recorded generally light rain during the students’ travel window,” she explained. Belmonte cited a forecast outlook indicating that rain would arrive later in the day — projected as occasional light to moderate showers. At that point, officials expected that morning-shift students would already be home. But the rain came earlier than expected, peaking around noontime — exactly when students were heading home, she said. “We did not anticipate that timing. Given how unpredictable weather patterns have become, our projection failed to capture that. We suspended afternoon classes as soon as the Yellow Warning was issued,” she said. “Unfortunately, we could not remedy the situation for the students who had already come in for the morning session,” the city chief executive lamented. She reflected on the difficulty of balancing real-time data with on-the-ground realities, acknowledging that weather patterns have become increasingly erratic. “There are days when conditions worsen unexpectedly. But there are also days when the forecast warned of heavy rain, but we had drizzles instead,” she said. This experience, she said, reinforced an important lesson. “When it comes to the safety of our students, we need to take that uncertainty very seriously and, where circumstances warrant, be more conservative in our decisions rather than leave too much to chance,” Belmonte said.
