By Leoanrdo Micua

 

TOO bad, Typhoon Odette came just after Mayor Brian Lim was promised by President Duterte to extend financial assistance for the construction of a hospital in Dagupan. Methinks that with the big swath of destruction left by the typhoon in some parts of the Visayas and Mindanao, that promise— if it was indeed made—may not be delivered too soon and most likely even in the immediate future.

Considering that such financial assistance is nowhere in the General Appropriations Act about to be signed into law before the year ends, Mayor Lim may be just waiting for an empty bag in his desire to build a Dagupan hospital.

And with Mr. Duterte left with just six months in office, pleasing a political ally will definitely take the back seat over the needs of millions of people badly affected by the howler.

Till today however, President Duterte still cannot figure out where he can source the P10 billion that is needed to key in the rehabilitation and recovery of the provinces and cities in the Visayas and Mindanao that were literally flattened to the ground by the super typhoon.

And if the fund is finally found, the rehab cannot proceed immediately because of the ban on infrastructure projects during the coming elections. So, most likely, it will be the next administration that will assume the responsibility to rehabilitate the areas devastated by Odette.

Note that the claimed promise to deliver Malacañang’s help for the construction of the Dagupan hospital was made when Lim and other local executives made a call on the President supposedly to congratulate him for deciding to withdraw from the senatorial race.

Duterte knows too well that he’s no longer President of the Philippines come July 1, 2022 and, of course, can no longer ask Congress to insert the budget for the Dagupan hospital in the proposed national budget.

To me that supposed promise sounded like an empty one but Brian just took this hook line and sinker and didn’t come to his mind that he was just being taken for a ride. Why? It is because all government funding should emanate from the budget. It’s s simple as that.

Besides, nobody supports a multi-million project without being shown the plan in black and white.

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What happened in some parts of the Visayas and Mindanao also happened to us on July 16, 1990 when a 7.6 magnitude earthquake brought down Dagupan, literally down to its knees, that made number of buildings tilting in different directions and roads became craters as if these were bombed. The incident happened during the administration of Cory Aquino but it took several months more before the daunting task of rehabilitation finally started.

We were glad that during those sad times, we had a Joe de Venecia, then an ordinary congressman of Pangasinan, who crafted a rehab agenda for Dagupan and other devastated areas. For that, he is now being hailed as the architect of a new Dagupan.  

Five years after the EDSA revolution, the coffers were similarly badly depleted like today because of our response to the pandemic. Unfazed, Cory sent Joe abroad to look for funds. Many of the  Philippines’ allies and friends responded to Joe’s call for help. The rest is now history. 

But it was Fidel Ramos who completed the rehabilitation of Dagupan from the rubble. With De Venecia as his Speaker of the House of Representatives, rehabilitation finally shifted to high gears.  

This was continued when Gloria Arroyo took the reins of the government when she partnered with Joe in putting up the engineering marvel Jose de Venecia Expressway Extension built across former fishponds and marsh lands in Dagupan.  

There is a daunting task that lays ahead in the Visayas and Mindanao and judging from the magnitude of destruction, their rehabilitation and recovery  may take years to accomplish if work will not  kick off soon. 

Certainly, rehab of the ravaged areas will  fall on the lap of the new administration of whoever will be elected president. 

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Those who’ve been reading this column, I wish them and every one a Merry Christmas and Prosperous New Year!

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