Worth the dredge

MOTHER Nature seems to have been pouring unprecedented amounts of rain in the last few years, causing floods in many places that have not usually seen water rise on the streets or at higher levels in areas that are already identified as flood-prone. But nature is only one part of the story.  The major player in this extraordinary flooding that we have been witnessing is man himself.

In flood-prone Dagupan, Engineer Rodolfo Dion of the Second Highway District of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) clarified that the garbage produced by people plus mud, which is most likely gushing in bigger volumes now due to deforestation, have accumulated at the bottom of the Pantal River causing siltation and thus obstructing the flow of water out into the Lingayen Gulf. What’s worse is the ensuing accretion, instead of being countered through dredging, has been taken advantage of by people by using the “newly-formed land” to build structures on, either illegally or through foreshore lease agreements with the government. You would think that our public officials would know better than to give permission for the utilization of these areas, but the trend appears to be that progress is equated with having more and more – more communities, more buildings, more infrastructures, and more development in the way of urbanization.

The good news is, Dion said, there is a long-term solution to the Pantal River problem. It will cost money, time and other resources, but considering the damages that have already been wrought and the constant threats that the city and its people are facing, it would be more than worth the spending. At a fuel cost of P10,000 per hour for six hours a day for 265 days (discounting 100 days for weekends and holidays), the city will need P15.9 million to dredge the river. Add to that the manpower needed for such an undertaking. But what’s P16 million – didn’t the city government afforded to lose that to a land deal that was supposedly for a sanitary landfill project? As for manpower, surely volunteers could be tapped from the communities and trained to help the government in the task.

Man’s saving grace is that he is capable of delivering as much good as causing destruction. There is not much we can do about the changing weather pattern, but we can still undo our own folly.

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No big deal

PRESIDENT Aquino has fired an Army spokesman and another military officer. He did that as the two were found to have strayed from the line being espoused by the President regarding the Moro rebels in Mindanao. The Chief Executive did not want an eye for an eye solution to the conflict amid the tragic fate suffered by 19 young soldiers ambushed dead in the South last week. Instead, Aquino wanted to pursue the peace initiatives inside the conference room and not in the battlefields.

Actually, there was no big deal there. The sacked officers knew it was coming. Soldiers are always trained to obey.  They have no mind of their own.  If they should disagree with their Commander-In-Chief, they should keep it to themselves.

Always, civilian rule prevails in a democracy.

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