Think about it
A sobering voice
By Jun Velasco
AT long last, we got a word of authority that we hope would soothe frayed nerves as a result of the controversial release of excess water from the embattled San Roque Dam believed cause the disaster that has descended on Pangasinan and neighbors. The word came from the man who built the controversial San Roque Dam himself — former President Fidel V. Ramos.
Through our e-mail, FVR through our kin Mel Velasco, blames “faulty flood control dikes and the abolition of the Agno River Basin Development Commission (ARBDC) in 2004 by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo” among the culprits that caused the massive flooding that crushed 70 percent of Pangasinan towns and cities due to Typhoon Pepeng.
By the way it was under President Ramos when construction of the San Roque Multi-Purpose Dam Project (SRMDP) in San Manuel town started (it was however completed in November 2002 during President Estrada’s term).
FVR tells Pangasinan officials and other leaders “not to just look at the culpability of SMRDP and National Power Corporation on the release of water from the dam as the sole culprit — for “there are other causes of the flooding.”
He laments: “Unfortunately, since seven years ago, SRMDP has not been supported by the installation downstream of reinforced dikes for flood control of huge volumes of impounded rainwater, for irrigation of arable lands in four Pangasinan districts and one Tarlac district, hundreds of barangay fish farms, and freshwater for two million residents. Insufficient peso budgetary allocations throttled committed ODA assistance resulting in non-existing, sub-standard or much delayed completion of dikes/ floodgates not in accordance with projections for SRMDP.”
FVR says on 14 September 2004 through Executive Order 357, PGMA abolished ARBDC without any replacement – not even transitional arrangements – when SRMDP was already operational.
He said that it was “indeed unpardonable” because this meant goodbye to better flood control dikes, one million additional tons of rice per year, additional inland fish farms, and potable water for 35 municipalities and cities downstream where deep well aquifers were threatened by pollution/ saltwater intrusion.
Ramos said it was inexcusable to those who consistently took the long view in visualizing a better, more competitive Filipino future.
“Was it politically convenient for decision-makers whose perspectives were not only myopic but also limited in field experience and oblivious to people empowerment imperatives?” asked Ramos.
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Wherever we go today, our flood- ravaged province and its four cities are objects of pity and lamentation as if we’ve been cast away from the circle of normal places of abode.
Thursday night, our classmate, Jay Nocum, president of the Rotary Club of Metro Diliman, called us to guide his group to distribute relief goods in Dagupan and San Carlos City. Since we were grounded in Manila, we referred him to Ashok Vasandani of the Rotary Club of Central Pangasinan.
For a couple of weeks now, our metro Cubao has been boning up with what we consider a more essential and holistic approach to pain mitigation as a result of disasters, which we thought should be a more timely approach.
Last Wednesday, club director Gen. Pol Bataoil did a fine job by briefing our members on what to do to alleviate suffering. In that meeting, we called attention to the global character of disasters that closes in on Al Gore’s treatise on Global Warming which, if not correctly arrested, would cast New York to oblivion, God forbid!
A month back, we sought our international committee chairman General Art Lomibao to send a van to ferry our Oplan Botolan mission led by IWC committee chair Aime Herradura and president IWC Vicky Guillermo, wife of PP Diony Guillermo, an FVR consultant, but hardly had the group returned to their QC homes when Botolan was crushed again by a bigger flood that could no longer be mitigated by piecemeal efforts. Because of this, we want to deal with disasters by factoring in the bigger picture as we opt for man’s preparedness to save himself while he extends a brotherly hand to beleaguered neighbor Prayers should be matched by preparedness.
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As we go to press, we received a sad report that Dagupan civic leader, the former Luisa de Guzman, wife of the late ace accountant Victorino Daroya and mother of our high school classmate Lilia and commander Tessie D. Belisario, died last Tuesday. Our sincerest sympathy and condolence.
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