When journalist Nini Cabaero almost drowned in Cebu floods, she wrote about it in the first person
Journos’ “I” notebook
Journalist Nini Cabaero (left), with a companion, gets media attention. [Photos in the article by Gugmang Laagan]
When journalist Nini Cabaero almost drowned in Cebu floods, she wrote about it in the first person
Which journalists don’t usually do, as they routinely write about other people caught in an event or occurrence of public interest.
Here, Nini, former editor-in-chief of SunStar Cebu, uses the first person singular in telling a personal story in the news that was the Cebu floods of Nov. 4, 2025.
First published in SunStar
Nov. 8, 2025. Adapted to CJJ
Nov. 11, 2025
Anger is the best response to the tragedy of Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. Not helplessness, not resignation.
What happened in Barangay Bacayan, Cebu City, during typhoon Tino was not just nature’s fury. It was failure.
I have every reason to be angry. I nearly drowned in the flash floods that turned our subdivision, Villa del Rio, into a river. The water rose with terrifying speed. One moment I was trying to reach higher ground, the next I was swept away, dragged toward a car, and I could feel myself being pulled under.
Nini Cabaero’s column was titled: “Anger is the best response.”
But my neighbor, Ignacio H. Cabalit Jr., was there. With one arm, he held his dog. With the other, he kept pulling me up. He never let go. Because of him, I found footing again, coughed out the floodwater, and climbed with him, his family and other neighbors to a house’s grills to reach the roof.
When the water subsided, I saw my home’s doors were broken, the walls cracked, the belongings I had built over the years ruined. My car was gone, one of those in the heaps of mangled vehicles. I had cuts in both legs from the ordeal.
It all happened so fast. Victims of flash floods always say that about the suddenness and power of the water. Now I know. You won’t understand it until it’s your turn to fight for life.
My fear turned to anger as SunStar Cebu reported that the flooding in Bacayan was not a surprise. It was failure foretold. About P17.4 billion worth of flood control projects in Metro Cebu failed to do their job, the report said. The walls meant to hold back the water collapsed or were never properly built.
Engineers admitted that development in the mountains was uncontrolled, that the focus had been on building subdivisions.
People like Ignacio risked their lives because government failed to do what it should do. That is, to protect the people.
So yes, the best response is anger. Not acceptance of officials’ apologies. But this anger cannot stay private among the victims. It must become public. It must be loud.
We can rebuild houses and buy new cars and appliances, but we must demand answers.
I will remember Ignacio’s hand gripping mine as I fought the current. That is what courage looks like — one person refusing to let another go. It is time for our leaders to show the same grip.
Until then, I will hold on to this anger. Because it is the only thing that might keep us from drowning again.
Next week: How to express that anger? Signing petitions demanding accountability; shaming those behind the slicing of our mountains. More to come. Suggestions are welcome. 