A trip west

By Johanne Margarette R. Macob

I WISH to share the trip we had in the city best known for its — well not exactly a hundred — Hundred Islands. So here we go…

It was a little more than an hour trip by land from the provincial capital town Lingayen to the Alaminos City proper. Then it took us another 15 minutes to reach our first destination… I saw a couple of hills that were partly scraped. There were no men working that I expected to see. I even thought I could have a picture alongside an aircraft. Disappointedly, it seemed to me that it was an abandoned ample extent of useless territory.

A few snaps and then we boarded our vehicle to proceed to our next stop: a vista of 22 colorful houses. We were able to have chitchat with one of the residents. She appeared to be fine with her abode except for the fact that the village, according to her, lacks a source of running water. Also, for such a village that is a bit isolated from the rest of the city, there should be more facilities available within it. Sadly, there were none, even the most basic such as a health center.

Then we reached another barangay. There was an ongoing construction of a hotel, the first major good development I saw so far. I looked further to locate where the supposed international-standard-swimming-pool is. Again, there was none. The spot where it should be – as pointed out by the locals — was actually serving as a parking area. Sigh.

After some refreshment, we went back to the town proper in front of the ‘park’. Two points! There were men working on it. I wasn’t sure though if it’s for improvement since I haven’t seen how it looked before. Anyway, I really hope the ongoing construction’s for the better.

We were already tired to go further, to other sites. We stopped.

It was an exhausting journey, well physically and even emotionally.

Now I am in bed, just finished my nightly ritual and ruminating again about that trip. The city displays a lot of potentials only if all the people living in it were on the same side and would realize their ‘potentials’. It doesn’t require one to have a law degree or clutch a position in government to see that there have been some mistakes, that there is something wrong. I am just a budding journalist and have nothing personal against anyone linked with all the accusations regarding the said ‘projects’. I have nothing personal versus the mayor and the rest of the local government officials. I am just personally upset with the way things were and still are. There were a lot of great plans…the one awful thing about them is that they remained to be just plans.

As a journalist, I owe the public the information, so I am laying it out here.  In the same way that I believe — as the Constitution speaks of — “a public office is a public trust”. The community deserves much.

Back to Homepage

Share your Comments or Reactions

comments

Powered by Facebook Comments