HERE in Tagbilaran City, we face this home truth. We don’t await rain for our kinampay ube plantations. We await rain because it means a time to harvest mud water all around. A time to clean the mess several times a week. A time where residents speak out to the radio station.
A time to see city engineering employees visiting inundated areas to check and interview residents. These acts in the past were not sincere. Sorry for being forthright.
The flood still continues to bring miseries to the residents.
The cycle repeats. Year after year.
Residents in our area, during the same season, saw uniformed men with IDs checking. After some cleaning, nothing happened. Only cleaned. What were they cleaning? That I do not know. I don’t know if it was worth anything. Just feel with your senses.
They are just unclogged in the absence of a functional sewerage system. Speaking out on air did not matter. No action. Nada.
A time to hear a barrage of phone calls on the radio. Residents are tired of face-lifts that can’t address their needs. A problem that the city government can solve.
This is indeed a time of harvest. Not of kinampay but of dirt. A mouthful of neglect. A time to feel sorry for having lived in Tagbilaran City.
On July 19, I heard the city government program interview aired through DYRD, with honorable Charles Cabalit, chairman of the committee in the Sangguniang Panlungsod taking charge of the city’s flood problem. The gist of what he is doing: he is just removing the dirt. That’s all. Do the residents of the city expect more?
My goodness, honorable Cabalit, please do the real thing. We know what the city needs. We do not just need unclogging. That is ostensible. We need sewerage systems. We have been awaiting this legislation long ago. Why not move to legislate a flood control project for the city? And please do it now.
This project costs us (nothing is free nowadays). Even then, how come Iloilo City finished a big flood control project in 2008? The government of Iloilo City availed help from the national government and also shelled its money for this project. We can do the same.
I am glad that the mayor Jane Yap now reportedly prioritizes the infrastructure to avoid floods. We are waiting for this, madam mayor. We are like orphaned children whose cries repeat and repeat through the years.
I heard this flood control project by the new mayor covers several areas, but it did not mention the area near the Blind Center in Tamblot Street. For just fifteen minutes of heavy downpour, motor vehicles cannot cross the area. Everybody wades if they go to their offices or schools. One worry of leptospirosis. If the city employees just visit the area and again bring cleaning machines like the usual practice in the previous years, we know what it means. It is already an insult to our intelligence, mind you. But we need the proper solution. Now.
In Nangka Drive, Tamblot Street, fronting the Blind Center, the water remains stagnant for months. Could we still endure the sight, everyone? This is not a river. This side of the road should have a sewer connecting the CPG North Avenue. This is long overdue. Is there any solution, mayor Jane?
The residents near the Blind Center and Nangka Drive in Tamblot have already sent two letters to the previous mayor about their flood ordeal. Yet nothing happened.
I plead with the new mayor to please do something in Tamblot Street.
If we cannot get a response from our leaders, where can we go? What happens if people don’t feel their government?
The rain in the city isn’t a harvest song. It is a flood of children’s tears—perennial tears every year–- because their parents leave them on their own.
Never mind the mouthful of mud. It is still edible.
The children of the city are pointing out again the government’s vision: “A highly urbanized, resilient and livable city by 2030.” Whether we will be livable is doubtful without urban planning and functional flood controls.
We are expecting mayor Jane’s intervention.
And where is the Sangguniang Panlungsod through the deluged years?
