Punchline
Napocor’s protocol is anti-Pangasinan
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
WHEN the San Roque Multi-Purpose Project was first proposed in the mid-90s to harness the power of the Agno River that traverses San Manuel and Natividad in the province, Pangasinan was promised wider and regular irrigation, effective flood control and a reliable source of power. The only minimal social cost to the province, we were told, would be the displacement of tribal minorities in the proposed site. Given such promises, Pangasinenses gave their thumbs-up.
Little did we know that 12 years hence, the province would be left alone to suffer the damages caused by the dam each time it decides to release water to serve the power sector, and the Pangasinenses’ lives would be damned!
This is a reality we’ve only come to understand after the 10/9 deluge.
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The way it stands, SRMP is not there for Pangasinan’s benefit. Each time the San Roque Dam releases water, the bottom line protocol is to flood towns, a situation, that is not lost to the Arroyo administration.
For starters, the owner and operators of the dam are wholly from the power sector, the National Power Corporation and the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM)! Their officers’ and engineers’ orientation is clearly energy-based, not agri, and certainly not pro-people safety!
Secondly, the protocol that the San Roque Dam established for the dam operations is ostensibly premised primarily on the policies affecting its service to the power sector solely. If the dam promised to provide effective flood control, shouldn’t we wonder why is it even necessary for the dam operators to issue warning alerts about water releases when it is presumed that releases from the dams are within safe parameters, that no life and property can be threatened? One can understand warning alerts about the dam’s operations but only in case of a threat of a breach in the dam, but not for a normal release of excess water in the dam.
I, therefore, found the explanations of the mid-level Napocor’s engineers at the senate hearing, invoking the alert protocol as insulting as if the whole issue is about a warning system, even insinuating that it was the residents and the provincial government that should take the blame for the devastation for ignoring its warning, a fact that Guv Spines vehemently denies. They divert our attention from the real issue – it’s about what the dam is supposed to do and failed to deliver, not when and how the warning was issued.
Thirdly, the dam is fully equipped with the latest instruments that modern technology can offer, to help dam operators deliver on its promise to serve power, flood control and irrigation. It has an instrument that measures and forecasts the amount of rainfall in real time that can be expected to fall on the dam if a low pressure area or a typhoon approaches. Thus, if flood control were one of its priority purposes, then water releases would have been immediately calculated and implemented to prevent life and property losses. But no, the instruments were used to serve the maximum efficiency of the dam for the power sector solely, damn the lives and properties of the people downstream!
Fourth, Napocor and its executives knew all along that without the re-regulating pond for the project that is still in its early implementation stage, severe flooding in towns downstream would ensue without a carefully calculated releasing of excess water. They are also aware that the irrigation channels that could divert excess water to the farms were not in place. Obviously, these were not factored in when the operators decided to release the huge volume belatedly.
Fifth, the arrogance of the spokesman of Napocor said it all. He insisted, without batting an eyelash, that they would follow the same protocol that led to the 10/9 deluge regardless of the consequences to the province if the water level at the dam warrants it! What gall! If that doesn’t tell you that they don’t give a damn about flooding and its consequences in the province, I don’t know what will. And if we simply accept that statement as the rule, then we deserve what we all lost and will continue to lose!
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A visibly angry Guv Spines was seen on national TV when he attended the Senate hearing. That was reassuring for Pangasinenses for it portends of good things to happen. His anger would serve the province well, therefore, if Guv Spines:
1. Pursues the class suit against Napocor and PSALM if only to make them constantly aware that their profits come last when lives, properties and local industries are at stake. It’s time, everyone learns something about the word “accountability”! The highly compensated executive and operating officers cannot be allowed to proceed like nothing happened as they always did in the past. They should be sued for criminal liability and damages without delay, individually and collectively. Farmers and families need to be compensated for their losses through no fault of theirs.
2. Insists that a flood control specialist from the provincial government be made part of the dam’s management team to ensure that the interests of the Pangasinenses are secure and protected.
3. Seeks the overhaul of the alert protocol of the San Roque dam by issuing alerts not only each time water is released but also each time it determines that the expected amount of rainfall from a typhoon can inundate towns in the province.
4. Finally, enforces all laws protecting our environment strictly.
If he should capitulate at anytime and agree simply to a slap on the wrist of the operators, then he would have lost an important legacy. Worse, he would be pictured as ‘all-talk-do-nothing’ governor.
In fact, Guv Spines should not sulk when President Arroyo failed to give him due credit for the preemptive and rescue operations he initiated and instead heaped praises on Dagupan Mayor Al Fernandez Jr. What should matter to him alone is what Pangasinenses think of him on the issue: Pangasinenses believe he has delivered credibly so far! So, take a bow, Guv Spines.
Now, they look forward to his next moves to finish what he started.
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DESTRUCTIVE QUARRYING. While Guv Spines is organizing the frontline in the war vs. San Roque Dam for the 10/9 deluge, he should take on another equally important issue in the domestic front that is wreaking havoc. I refer to the unabated quarrying of rivers in the province.
And while his office is reportedly finally prepared to issue a cease and desist order to the provincial environment officer that will effectively stop quarrying along Bued River in San Fabian (after receiving a petition from the San Fabian parish led by Fr. Oliver Mendoza, and a subsequent endorsement and resolution from Mayor Jaming Libunao and the municipal council), as DENR’s special representative he must act decisively on quarrying as an activity. For his delayed action, the quarrying already destroyed and rendered the Binday Dam and the irrigation channels that provide the much-needed irrigation of farmlands in six barangays in the town useless!
It’s time Guv Spines musters the political will to stop quarrying in all rivers in the province by his political friends. The years of degradation of our rivers have taken its toll, and the 10/9 deluge’s message to him is unmistakably clear: Start protecting our rivers and mountains; stop exploiting them for illegal profits; the economic and social costs to the province are immeasurable!
For our people’s sake, I pray he will finally step forward to be their ultimate champion who will protect the environment whatever the political costs.
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