We did not expect that we had last Monday as our seemingly “Lucky 13” as water consumer.
We say we are lucky of the number that is usually associated with bad luck because from yesterday’s indications of the water supply in our household and the rest of the residents in our rural barangay in Tugbok district last Monday, the 13th day of the daily 12 to 13 hours of water service outage, seemed to be the last. That is if no new repair or tapping and looping work will be done soonest.
Yes, the daily water service interruption in our place started last April 24 until last Monday. The water service loss the other day started at about 7 in the morning. Luckily, instead of having the water back in the faucets at about 9 or ten in the evening, it instead came back much earlier at about 3 p.m.
While the initial water flow was somewhat turbid, still it was a big relief for the consumers affected. They need not anymore have to wait up to midnight or early dawn to be able to store enough for the next day’s household use.
But frankly we have no idea whose facility had broken down or needed some improvement or adjustments – the Davao City Water District’s (DCWD’s) or the Apo Agua’s, its partner and supplier of bulk water.
But just the same we would thank them for finally restoring to normal level the water service to the hundreds of households in the affected areas served by either the Riverside Water System (RWS) or the Talandang Water Reservoir in Biao Joaquin. The latter is the depository of water coming from Apo Agua.
Our only hope is that there will be no more water service interruptions similar to what befell our barangay starting last April 24 until last Monday.
*************************
Now this one is news worthy of every man’s serious mental calisthenics. We mean the headline of this newspaper yesterday saying that 33 percent of Filipino men have been victims of domestic violence perpetrated by their wives. The figure is a result of a study conducted by the prestigious University of Mindanao Institute of Popular Opinion (UM-IPO)
Even if the study coverage area is only Davao City, still the figure is significant considering the present population and the number of married men, as well as the ratio of male against female inhabitants in the entire city.
Yes, 33 percent is an unlikely figure considering that many of those who came out and reported domestic violence are housewives. They complain of verbal and physical abuse, as well as emotional and psychological hurt due mostly to philandering husbands.
What emboldens the husbands to admit that they too, have been victims of domestic violence? Is it because the survey conducted by the UM-IPO gives the husband-respondents enough room to hide their identities?
Whatever is the reason the outcome only validates rumors that men are not always the perpetrators of violence inside homes that usually leads to broken marriages or disintegration of families.
But of course husbands comprising the 67 percent of respondents could still console themselves. At least the bigger percentage still enjoy the macho image they have portrayed, or that even if they were physically or verbally hurt by their wives they still believe that it still is part of the process of strengthening husband and wife relations.
As one popular adage says, “That which doesn’t kill you (either the husband or the wife) makes you (either or both, and the relationship) even stronger.”
Of course we are not encouraging husbands to be that docile to allow themselves to be abused domestically by their wives. But we are also discouraging the wives to be that physical, mental or emotional tormentors to their husbands.
As normally advised by priests and layman elders during pre-nuptial seminars, “Always settle your misunderstanding inside the confines of the bedroom, and let not a night pass over it.”
