Help needed for Cagayan and Isabela

By Leonardo Micua

 

BY the skin of the teeth, Pangasinan was again spared by Typhoon Ulysses. Thank God, there was no strong typhoon that struck us and swept us off our feet this year.

But Cagayan and Isabela provinces were not as lucky. They were hit by a massive flood that was regarded as the worst in 40 years in the aftermath of Typhoon Ulysses.

From media reports, the flood in those two northern provinces was exacerbated by the release of impounded water of the Magat Dam at the height of Typhoon Ulysses.

The flood rendered thousands of people homeless, devastated infrastructures that would take billions of pesos to rebuild, destroyed food crops that were produced by farmers in their fields and made lives of the people, especially the poor, harder.

As expected, the Senate and the House of Representatives will conduct investigations in aid of legislation to determine if there was breach of water release protocol by the people tasked to manage the facility.

The flood in both Cagayan and Isabela was far worse than the big flood that happened in Pangasinan in October 2009 at the height of Typhoon Pepeng, when a flood control dike of the Agno River was washed out that sent rushing water and almost obliterated the then newly built SM City Rosales and brought widespread flood in all districts of Pangasinan, except the first district.

In Tuguegarao as shown in some TV footages, the flood reached roofs of one-story houses. Many had to stay the night out on the rooftops while they awaited rescuers to pick them up.

Few days after the water had subsided in most of Tuguegarao, many towns still could not be reached by government and private groups distributing relief goods. But knowing the resiliency and industry of the Ilocanos in both provinces, we hope and pray that they’ll soon be back on their own feet and their provinces rise as a phoenix does to the rising sun.

We love Cagayan because it is where some of our dearest friends and former co-workers live. It is in Isabela too where my wife’s relatives chose to make home and run a business.

So, let’s open our hearts to our fellowmen in Cagayan and Isabela who need our help from all of us in their most trying time.

Our heart bled upon seeing TV footages of ABS-CBN TV Patrol on Kapamilya Channel of displaced residents begging for alms from motorists on the road to buy food.

Many of these residents have built makeshift sheds along the road side as temporary shelter from the rains and searing heat of the sun as they have nowhere else to go after their houses were swept away by the flood.

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By the magnitude of their destruction from the flood, Cagayan and Isabela might need billions of pesos and years to rehabilitate their damaged infrastructures.

President Rodirto Duterte named Public Works Secretary Mark Villar and Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Roy Cimatu as infrastructure czars in rebuilding Cagayan and Isabela from wholesale destruction wrought by the flood. 

Methinks the road to full recovery might be long and tortuous considering the amount of money needed to see it through but since we are yet in the midst of COVID-19 pandemic that has yet to be conquered, there may not be enough money in the national coffer available. 

Anyway, let’s hope the promised rehabilitation and reforestation can get started at least by the beginning of next year if the funding can be found. 

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While the entire Luzon was placed under a state of calamity because of the fury of past typhoons, it is not good to see a few LGUs now doing frenzied spending of people’s money on meaningless and utterly irrelevant projects that don’t help in efforts for economic recovery.

Since every LGU in Luzon is under the state of calamity, it is incumbent upon them to conserve their remaining resources because although they might not have been badly affected by the typhoon, the war versus COVID-19 is still on going and has not been won.

An LGU could have earned more pogi points in the eyes of its constituents if it had adopted a strict belt-tightening policy that minimized uncalled for expenses instead of spending P3.8 million only for Christmas lights.

Ha, ha, ha! Did I get the goat of the trolls again?

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