The title seems like alarmist fantasy, but a recent, heartbreaking reality suggests it’s a valid concern. In the aftermath of the 6.9 magnitude earthquake that struck Cebu, images of displaced residents sleeping inside large plastic bags due to a tent shortage were deeply unsettling. It was a stark portrait of desperation, but it was also an unintentional demonstration of a critical gap in our collective disaster response: a failure of practical, on-the-ground ingenuity.
The sight of Cebuanos huddled inside these bags, forced to sleep sitting up, was alarming for one simple, terrifying reason: the risk of suffocation. In an attempt to find shelter from the elements, they had inadvertently created a far more immediate danger for themselves. This is not a failure of spirit—the resilience of Filipinos is legendary. It is, however, a failure of imagination, a failure of awareness and re-education, in a moment of crisis. The solution was, quite literally, in their hands.
With a simple blade, those same plastic bags could have been transformed. Cut open and tied together, they could have become makeshift tarps. Strung between two poles or tree branches, they could have formed rudimentary A-frame tents, providing overhead cover from rain while allowing for open-air circulation. This simple act would have allowed families to lie down, to sleep in a normal position, and most importantly, to breathe freely. It is a basic survival principle: adapt your resources to solve the most pressing problem.
And this is where the zombies come in. A zombie apocalypse is the ultimate pop-culture test of a society’s ability to survive when systems collapse. It demands resourcefulness, quick thinking, and the ability to see a tool in every object. If we struggle to see a potential tent in a plastic bag during a predictable post-earthquake scenario, how can we expect to thrive when faced with a truly unconventional catastrophe?
Our famous bayanihan spirit and resilience are invaluable, but they are often reactive. We endure hardship with incredible fortitude, but we must also cultivate a proactive mindset of creative survival. The real monsters we face are not the walking dead; they are the typhoons, earthquakes, and floods that are an inevitable part of our geography. The plastic bag incident in Cebu is a sobering wake-up call. Before we can ever hope to face a fictional apocalypse, we must first master the art of surviving our reality.