Saturday - February 4, 2012 12:55 PM
Today's Punto
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Editorial
Idiocy
Jul 30, 2010
“YES TO a flood-free San Fernando. Yes to cityhood.”
A most stupid proposition that made the rounds of the capital at the time of the campaign for its cityhood.
So San Fernando became a city, so its inundation continued and even worsened. Remember that time a full stretch of the Gapan-San Fernando-Olongapo Road became a vast ocean two or three years back?
Flood-mitigating measures have become a major component of the administration of City Mayor Oscar S. Rodriguez. As a matter of course, a city flood czar has been tapped even.
Still the floods – though minimized – came.
Of late the city government has reposited its hope for the final solution of the flooding problem in the Sagip-Ilog Project.
The P169-million flood control project at the San Fernando River covers rehabilitating some 5.26 kilometers of the San Fernando River so as to allow the freer flow of floodwaters out of the city.
The project however is way behind its target date of completion, 54 percent (un)accomplished to date. Its contractor, R.D. Policarpio fingered as the only “problematic contractor” of all those engaged in the P4.6-billion urgent flood-mitigating program for the whole of Pampanga, Pleas as well as denunciations have gone the way of the Department of Public Works and Highways to compel R.D. Policarpio to do the job its is being paid for – finish the project.
Just on Tuesday, in a city council committee hearing, the construction firm and the DPWH to – in the words of Councilor Jimmy Lazatin – “get an assurance from the DPWH that flooding would not hit the poblacion area in case of sudden rains. Some of our constituents fear that there might be severe flooding because the project has yet to be fully completed in time for the rainy season.”
It gladdens us to see our officials working hard to rid our city of floods. But to put all our eggs in one basket, so to speak, relying solely on the completion of the Sagip-Ilog Project as the definitive solution is myopic.
Engineering interventions need to have the natural means as complementary measures in the solution of the flooding problems. And it is here that the city government is most remiss, if not directly at fault.
The wholesale killing of trees in the city, the idiocy being parroted now by even the highest echelons of local government and the business community to cut down all trees along MacArthur Highway will totally negate whatever efficacy expected of a completed Sagip-Ilog Project.
For all their supposed intelligence, dedication and commitment, a number of our local officials have no sense of the meaning of symbiosis, a number of our so-called astute business leaders are plainly idiotized by their vested interests.
A most stupid proposition that made the rounds of the capital at the time of the campaign for its cityhood.
So San Fernando became a city, so its inundation continued and even worsened. Remember that time a full stretch of the Gapan-San Fernando-Olongapo Road became a vast ocean two or three years back?
Flood-mitigating measures have become a major component of the administration of City Mayor Oscar S. Rodriguez. As a matter of course, a city flood czar has been tapped even.
Still the floods – though minimized – came.
Of late the city government has reposited its hope for the final solution of the flooding problem in the Sagip-Ilog Project.
The P169-million flood control project at the San Fernando River covers rehabilitating some 5.26 kilometers of the San Fernando River so as to allow the freer flow of floodwaters out of the city.
The project however is way behind its target date of completion, 54 percent (un)accomplished to date. Its contractor, R.D. Policarpio fingered as the only “problematic contractor” of all those engaged in the P4.6-billion urgent flood-mitigating program for the whole of Pampanga, Pleas as well as denunciations have gone the way of the Department of Public Works and Highways to compel R.D. Policarpio to do the job its is being paid for – finish the project.
Just on Tuesday, in a city council committee hearing, the construction firm and the DPWH to – in the words of Councilor Jimmy Lazatin – “get an assurance from the DPWH that flooding would not hit the poblacion area in case of sudden rains. Some of our constituents fear that there might be severe flooding because the project has yet to be fully completed in time for the rainy season.”
It gladdens us to see our officials working hard to rid our city of floods. But to put all our eggs in one basket, so to speak, relying solely on the completion of the Sagip-Ilog Project as the definitive solution is myopic.
Engineering interventions need to have the natural means as complementary measures in the solution of the flooding problems. And it is here that the city government is most remiss, if not directly at fault.
The wholesale killing of trees in the city, the idiocy being parroted now by even the highest echelons of local government and the business community to cut down all trees along MacArthur Highway will totally negate whatever efficacy expected of a completed Sagip-Ilog Project.
For all their supposed intelligence, dedication and commitment, a number of our local officials have no sense of the meaning of symbiosis, a number of our so-called astute business leaders are plainly idiotized by their vested interests.
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