By Leonardo Micua

 

HERE’S the online news that made us fall from our seat just as the rainy season set in, earlier than expected: The Department of Health just confirmed the local transmission of BA.2.12.15, a more contagious version of Omicron, a variant of SARS-CoV 2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

So, this means a dreaded COVID sub-variant is already here and could already be spreading in our communities without short notice, all because we didn’t learn our lesson that an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure. We have again become too relaxed and allowed in-bound foreigners with the COVID strain sneak past our guard.

Look at our neighbors, China and North Korea. They suddenly found themselves desperately battling the virus, locking down their citizens like they are prisoners. In North America and South America, COVID-19 infections surged during the past days soon as people discarded their face masks and stopped practicing social distancing.

Here in the Philippines, we  can no longer afford to effect another excruciating lockdown on our own people, now that the economy is slowly improving and some schools, public and private, have finally started face-to-face classes.

Fortunately here in Pangasinan, it appears that COVID-19 is yet the least of our worries. As of May 19, there were only seven cases of COVID-19 left with just two cases added from the previous day’s tally, based on the data released by the Provincial Health Office. But sadly, one death from Pozorrubio town was recorded that day.

The remaining cases were one each from Alcala, Calasiao, Lingayen, Mangatarem, San Carlos City, Sta. Barbara and Urbiztondo.

But should there be another surge, spiked possibly by the  more contagious BA 2.12.15 sub-variant, is Pangasinan again ready to close its borders and reimpose stringent curfew hours? We’ll know from the provincial IATF headed by Gov. Amado Espino III and soon by incoming Gov. Ramon Guico III.

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In Dagupan City, we heard from incoming Mayor Belen Fernandez that she is bent on restoring the Waste to Energy project which was offered to the city years back under her previous administration without a single centavo to be spent by Dagupan.  

Recall that this novel project failed to take off when Brian Lim took over. He refused to continue any project associated with Belen. Finally, the project has a big chance of succeeding with Belen at the helm, with the Environmental Management Bureau’s assurance that it will support it.

As Belen recalled, she almost vomited while she was jogging along the Tondaligan Baywalk because of the stench coming from the dumpsite. This means, she said, the current city administration is still dumping wastes there, long after it was closed by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources regional office.

Recall that during her first two terms in office, Belen zealously worked to end the more than 60-year old garbage problem of Dagupan. She traveled to Chile to attend the World Ocean Coventry to seek help and solution to Dagupan’s mounting garbage problem that already posed serious risk to the Lingayen Gulf. 

Sure Global, an American company, responded. The company promised to build a $15 million project in Dagupan at no cost to the city government, except the land on which the project will stand. 

A government land was segregated in Bonuan through a presidential fiat worked out by then Mayor Fernandez with then President PNoy and the DENR for the Waste to Energy, a project that will turn wastes into diesel fuel, and methane gas that can be used to light homes and cook food.  

This state-of-the-art project could have been the first of its kind in Southeast Asia until it was torpedoed by Brian Lim when he took over. Instead, he entered into a contract with a private party to haul the wastes to an unknown a destination. Belen, as mayor, will surely unravel such a deal. Abangan!

Since the presidential endorsement for the segregated land still stands and the Waste to Energy machinery is already assembled in South Korea since 2020, let’s hope Belen can easily reconnect with Sure Global. The indication is there because  she received a congratulatory message from Sure Global’s Jillian Boughton on Facebook. 

Meanwhile, let’s see how the new case filed before the Ombudsman after the election against Mayor Lim and one Jessie Doria, head of the task force on River and Coastal Protection Management, for alleged violations of the Solid Waste Management and Ecological Act of 2000 relative to the alleged mismanagement of wastes at the dump site.

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