Punchline
Sue for command responsibility
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
I can’t blame the mayors in eastern Pangasinan for demanding the decommissioning of the San Roque Dam after the dam’s operators caused the massive destruction of their respective towns. They’ve been hurt bad and they want to get even.
The mayors raised the earthquake fault line bogey to underscore their demand. But getting even this way will hurt their towns even more. It’s a misplaced expression of disgust and frustration.
The mayors themselves are aware that with the billions of funding from many sources, it simply would be foolhardy for the funders to allow the government to construct a substandard dam. To ensure viability of the project, the funders (and the government) had to be triply certain that the dam can withstand at least an intensity 8 earthquake.
The mayors’ demand for the dam’s decommissioning, therefore, does not hold water (no pun intended). The fact remains that if the dam is properly managed, it can serve their towns well, making them more productive with a regular source for uninterrupted power, for much needed irrigation and, ironically, yes, safer from severe flooding.
What we all now know is that the dam was not only horribly mismanaged by incompetent “experts” but that Napocor’s top officials were evidently not even the least interested in its day to day operations, particularly in the design of its protocols. The Napocor chairman’s belated assessment that the applied protocol was obsolete belied the spokesman’s initial insistence that there was nothing wrong with the protocols established.
In sum, what the mayors should demand for is first to make the top officials and key officers of the dam’s operations accountable, civilly and criminally. They should file their own class suit against the responsible and accountable Napocor officials if only to impress upon the next managers to be more circumspect in the management of the dam, giving the safety of the communities downstream the highest priority.
With such unprecedented class suits, we can be sure the 10/9 deluge will never be repeated. The Napocor officials shall have learned their lessons as well.
Paging former Appellate Justice Teddy Regino! Go for it!
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COMMAND RESPONSIBILITY. It will be instructive for the provincial and local governments if Guv Spines does not train his guns solely on the specific person who authorized the ill-timed release of the huge volume of water from the dam that led to the 10/9 deluge.
To merely charge the person who gave the deathly order is to ignore the importance of the value of the principle of command responsibility in an organization. It should be noteworthy for his administration to appreciate the fact that the reason countries like Japan, Korea, Singapore and Malaysia have developed and advanced economically rapidly was because their public and corporate officials are steeped in command responsibility and consider the principle as primordial in their work ethic.
The inclination of Guv Spines, therefore, to isolate the blame, limiting it to the operators at the time, smacks of usual Pinoy politicking devoid of a political will to right the wrong, whatever the cost.
A case for command responsibility will make our public officials understand what true leadership is all about, and what responsibility to their constituents mean.
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GOING BACK TO BASICS. Faced with the reality that flooding will now be a common occurrence in the province, particularly, in communities situated by rivers and tributaries, it is now incumbent upon civic and non-government sectors to join hands with the local government units to train and prepare village folks for disaster preparedness.
But disaster preparedness should come with immersion activities for the protection and preservation of their environment. It is never too late to create further awareness towards effective waste disposal management and tree planting in the community level.
And certainly, it’s never too late for local government units to finally enforce the laws and ordinances that impact on the continued degradation of their respective environments. Let’s go back to the basics.
The dual efforts at this time will meet lesser resistance and will be welcomed by the communities now that the difficult and bitter lessons have been served, thanks to Pepeng and the incompetence of Napocor in managing the San Roque Dam.
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DREDGE DAGUPAN RIVERS NOW. It’d be interesting to know what the Dagupan City government plans to do with its dredging machine, now that it has been pointed out that the city’s rivers and tributaries are heavily silted by the fish pen operations.
The position of the city government that dredging the rivers will not help mitigate the flooding in the city, leaving the matter as a consequence of climate change that the city has no control over, is sheer hogwash. Of course, a deeper river bottom will minimize overflow of water and lessen the deadly impact of severe flooding. Even a grade school kid who plays with his toy boats on streams knows that!
What appears to be evident is that the city government has been compromised not to use the dredging machine to save the fish pen financiers and operators the costs of suspending, dismantling and restoring fish pens where the dredging machine will operate.
The Fernandez administration, that has credibly won acclamation for its high level of disaster preparedness, must now win the city residents’ trust credibly and fully by dredging the areas where fish pens abound.
I do not support the full dismantling of the fish pens because controlled a fish pen industry is necessary to provide for the province’s regular fish supply. However, an improved and a more effective regulatory measure should be in place.
For instance, the city government should not allow permanent positions for fish pens and instead schedule and rotate areas of the rivers for fish pens to allow for periodic dredging of the rivers where fish opens operate. Then, there is the rampant and unabated encroachment of river banks by businessmen. The city must exert efforts to restore illegally occupied accreted lands to the rivers.
It’s time a penalty for accountable city officials who fail to perform their tasks to protect the city’s natural resources is also defined.
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PUNCH ONLINE. The province’s LGU officials can learn a thing or two from the very enlightening discussions on the San Roque Dam’s operations posted by Pangasinenses from all over the world at the Punch Forum online (http://punch.dagupan.com).
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