Not a way of life

IMPROVING drainage systems and building a suitable network of dikes would be the ideal long-term solution to the persistent flooding that Pangasinan suffers every time there are heavy rains.

The flooding problem is not simply a matter of the low elevation of several areas but the fact that this coastal province, though its river system, serves as a passageway into the sea for water coming from the upland areas in the Cordillera mountain range. Pangasinan is also in the path of water that is spilled from the San Roque dam, which in turn catches water from two other dams, Ambuklao and Binga, located upstream.

Major drainage and dike projects would, of course, require a significant amount of funding that will have to be supported by the national government. But that does not mean that the provincial government and the rest of the local government units cannot take initiatives to draw up and push for durable solutions. Disaster-preparedness programs will be more meaningful if there are investments in structures that will actually minimize the possibility of damages. A province that is constantly under threat of being submerged will be hard-pressed to pursue lasting economic and social development — it will simply be trapped in a tiring cycle of recovery and rebuilding.

The rains are not going to stop and if we are to believe climate change doomsayers, it will only get worse. Solutions – big and small – will have to be laid down beginning with the strict implementation of a proper waste management system in all LGUs, keeping our rivers free-flowing, maintenance and upgrade of existing drainage systems especially in urbanized or fast-urbanizing areas, and eventually a bigger complex of infrastructure that will protect Pangasinan from the constant devastation from flooding. It’s a big ambition, but why can’t the province dream big? Learning to live with flood must not be a way of life that Pangasinenses should be forced to adapt.

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After a golf cheat comes a med tech

OF 2,219 container vans containing foods and other perishables that arrived in the Port of Manila for trans-shipment to Batangas, only 309 have remained accounted for. Where have the 1,910 vans gone, not even the Customs commissioner, Lito Alvarez, knows. Imagine the millions of pesos the government lost in unrealized taxes.

After ordering his intelligence chief to probe the theft and convincing the Department of Justice to hale 14 Customs personnel to court, Alvarez got the shock of his life: He was fired by P-Noy.

Alvarez was a bad choice from Day One. P-Noy swore him to office the day Alvarez was found guilty of cheating in golf last year. Alvarez’s replacement is Ruffy Biazon, a defeated senatorial candidate in P-Noy’s 2010 ticket.

Will Biazon, a medical technologist, finally have the antidote to smuggling at Customs?

We can only wish him well.

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