Brian reneges on campaign promise

By Leonardo Micua

 

DON’T just be reactive. Be proactive.

This is a message for the Dagupan City officials who intend to do just a patchwork on the daily flooding in the streets caused by the high tide. They can’t possibly think of just employing machines to siphon floodwater from flooded streets to stop flooding.

Firstly, this won’t work. Where will they direct the siphoned water? To the drainage canals? That’s the source of the flooding in the streets.

Flooding during high tide is already a daily occurrence around this time of the year. The water from the river flows freely to the dry lands during high tide, passing through a network of drainage canals designed to disgorge rainwater to the rivers.

So, channeling siphoned through the drainage will naturally backflow. Clearly, siphoning the tidal water to the drainage system is not only a big waste of money, time, and energy but illogical.

This course of action only exposes Mayor Brian’s incompetence, with no studied plans for the city and the people. He ought to know that palliative solutions can’t work in such a monumental environmental problem.

Doesn’t he realize that the effective solution is to raise the level of the streets? While this cannot be done overnight, he should have started elevating low-lying streets during the first months of his term. That is if he was sincere with his campaign promise.

Instead, he directed the realignment of budgeted funds intended for road elevation projects for other undefined projects.  Now he cannot provide a permanent solution, not even in the street he reserved for the vendors. Sir, you have reneged on your promise.

Pray that the big typhoons do not come soon or the city will have serious problems, adding to our woes in coping with COVID-19.

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There are indications that local transmission of COVID-19 in Pangasinan has already started. Patients, even with no travel history in Manila or abroad, are turning positive for the coronavirus disease only through their exposure in their communities. Note that the numbers spiked when locally stranded individuals and OFWS started arriving in their communities.

This is quite alarming. It necessitates vigilance and caution among us. We already heard that a doctor in a government hospital is already recommending that we revert back to Enhanced Community Quarantine, meaning to be locked down again.

It’s a relief to hear Provincial Health Officer Dr. Anna de Guzman during the Virtual KBP Forum that Gov. Espino is not considering the option of reverting Pangasinan back to ECQ at anytime because that would be a nightmare for all of us. The economic impact of such decision will be felt by almost all of us, but most especially by the poor.

So, to help prevent a return to ECQ, let us follow the healthy protocol –wear face masks, wash hands regularly with soap and water (and alcohol), maintain social distancing, strengthen immune system, and stay at home.

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My eight-year-old granddaughter Chammy (Mary Therese), daughter of my son Jose Dennis, an engineer, and Dra. Maryjane Quevedo-Micua, will be extolled in a memorial service at St. Paul The Apostle Chapel on Winston Hills in Sydney, Australia on July 27 to be officiated by Fr. Raning.

My two other granddaughters from New Zealand, Mary Sophia, and Mary Isabelle, sent their video clip, extolling their cousin Chammy  to the coordinator of the event in Sydney to be shown to the audience during the memorial.  Her remains will be brought to their home the following day in Forster, New South Wales, where a wake will be held. This will allow her friends, classmates, and teachers, and all those dear to her family to have a last glimpse of her. After that, she will be cremated after a mass and her ashes will be scattered at the beach where she loved to play as a child. Farewell, my dear Chammy. We love you.

Chammy died in an accident that happened at a rest area for vehicles at Hume Highway, southeast of Sydney, when a trailer truck rammed a parked truck and three SUVs. She was the only fatality. My daughter-in-law was hurt and has recovered. My son was unscathed. I talked to my son via Skype on Wednesday and he told me he is hiring a lawyer in Sydney to file civil suits against the driver of the way-ward trailer truck and the company, reportedly the biggest construction firm in Australia.

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