By Leonardo Micua

 

A deeper and thorough study by government experts is really needed to determine the cause of our flooding in Dagupan City due mostly to tidal flooding and to extreme meteorological factors that cause many rivers to overflow their banks.

This is because of the nagging suspicion in the minds of some sectors that chief culprits to the recurrent floods in the city is not due entirely after all to the rise of the sea level on account of global warming and liquefaction that came as a result of the July 16 powerful earthquake causing some parts of the city to sink.

They tag the more than three-kilometer De Venecia Expressway Extension more as the culprit to these flooding, arguing that it is one hunk of infrastructure blocking the exit way of the water from upstream of the Pantal River to the sea. Unable to find its way to the sea, the water from upstream naturally seeks its own level and spills over to adjacent communities and to our roads.

But this is highly debatable. Construction of the highway named after the late Judge Jose de Venecia Sr., father of former Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. whose Countryside Development Fund was used to build the project, went through several technical studies by local and foreign experts.

We learned that a Japanese consultant was hired by DPWH then to conduct a detailed technical study on the proposed highway, given the condition of the land on where it will be laid. I did not hear any protest against the design of the project, though I heard from the rumor mill years after the highway was already up that the project was originally designed as a viaduct to allow water to pass through under it. But backfilling of fishponds was resorted to instead.

Why was this issue not raised before? If the city government  believed the project would be prejudicial to Dagupan City and its future, why didn’t it interpose objection to the project? The sitting mayor when the JdV Expressway was being built was the late Benjamin Lim.

The only objection I heard from him before was – why should the new highway pass through the vicinity of the property of the CSI the City Mall, his business competitor.  He wanted the highway rerouted and even suggested the construction of an overpass to be built on top of the present Nel-Ars Subdivision in Lucao to connect it to the old De Venecia Highway leading to Calasiao. Aside from the fact that the property owners of the subdivision expressed their vigorous objection to this idea, the project was not found doable considering the staggering cost of an overpass at more than P500 million at that time.

I asked our friends if they seek a redesigning of the De Venecia Expressway or let it blown to smithereens just to ease the flooding in Dagupan, if the highway is really the culprit for the floods, but they said no! They said they just ask to open more passageways of water across JDV Expressway period.

This, I think, was what the Flood Mitigation Commission (FMC) of the past city administration put in their plans, but which was described by some as too grandiose and could never be implemented.

That is why, Mayor Belen is in the right track when she asked the DPWH to make a comprehensive study about the floods in Dagupan to find out where the problem really lies, a subtle way of validating the work of FMC.

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The World Health Organization (WHO) is finally seeing the light  at the end of the tunnel in our more than two-year struggle against the deadly COVID-19 virus. 

This is based on report of countries to WHO that the number of COVID-19 deaths has already drastically reduced and the number of remaining cases is down to the barest minimum. 

This is good news to the Filipinos badly beaten by the pandemic for more than two years because of lockdowns and other stringent regulations imposed throughout. In fact, President BBM’s recent order for optional wearing of face masks outdoor is work in progress.

In other countries, the wearing face masks has long been discarded. 

Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte was in the right track when she ordered that face-to-face classes in all schools, public and private, be fully implemented by November this year. 

Because of the drastic reduction in COVID-19 cases, particularly deaths, life here has steadily returned to normal, business has bounced back and people are now earning their bread at a faster rate.

But we still can’t be complacent lest the COVID-19 virus might stage a comeback.

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