MASANTOL, Pampanga- Some 28,000 families in nine island barangays in this town were also heavily flooded by the recent heavy rains and isolated for days by strong currents at the Pampanga River, but such situation has been their lot every rainy season for years now.
This time, however, they are appealing to Pres. Arroyo, before her term ends next year, to finally build the bridge towards this town’s poblacion, to link them to rescuers and relief goods at least during bad weather, and their sick to hospitals and clinics any time of the year.
In an interview with Punto, Vice Mayor Bajun Lacap issued anew the appeal to Pres. Arroyo “as a fellow Capampangan”. Affected barangay leaders had initially appealed for the bridge construction way back when Mrs. Arroyo was still vice president, he noted.
As of yesterday, the nine barangays could not yet be accessed readily, as currents in the Pampanga River remained strong.
Lacap reiterated his plea after learning that Mrs. Arroyo was again in her hometown in Lubao last Wednesday afternoon to distribute relief goods, even though reports from the Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council (PDCC) indicated that floods in the town had already subsided last Monday when the President was also there for relief goods distribution. Last Wednesday’s visit was the President’s 29th to the second district so far this year.
Lacap recalled that thrice during past visits of Mrs. Arroyo to Masantol and other parts of Pampanga’s fourth district, he took to pasting on his breast a masking tape marked “tete king Alauli (bridge at Alauli)” to which he pointed whenever he neared the President to remind her of the project. This, despite objections from the Presidential Security Group, he noted.
“One time she saw me pointing to the marked tape, she only smiled,” he said. He said that the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) reportedly finished a design for the bridge some three years ago, but that there has been no development on the project since then.
“Now we’d be satisfied even if we are given ‘tete matsing’ or a bridge good enough for monkeys,” he quipped.
He noted that when the Pampanga River swells, folk in the nine isolated barangays have to take a circuitous route via Calumpit in Bulacan and Apalit and Macababe, Pampanga to reach their poblacion. “We don’t bring our sick to doctors at the poblacion because of this, unless it’s really an urgent case,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) regional office said the President arrived at about 5:30 p.m. last Wednesday in Barangay Baruya in Lubao to distribute relief goods, although PDCC officer Emmy Villavicencio said that flooded areas in the town had already dried up.
Last Sunday, the President had distributed relief goods to flood victims in Guagua, also within her district, before proceeding to Lubao the following day to distribute relief goods in Barangay San Agustin, turn over bamboo desks to an elementary school in Baragay Sta. Catalina, inaugurate a water supply system in Barangay Concepcion, and inspect a road project in Barangay San Miguel.
Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo, who was guest speaker of public school teachers in Mabalacat in Pampanga’s first district while the President was in Lubao last Monday, said “we are wondering why she is overconcentrating in Pampanga, specially the second district”
“For a president with a constituency in the entire country, it would be at the least too much of a bias if you concentrate it in one district unless she has political plans. We are watching whether she would opt to run for congress as a minimum safety net against the possibility of being out of power entirely and being prosecuted once there is a change of government under the opposition,” Ocampo said.
There have been nagging reports that Mrs. Arroyo will run for congress in her district in next year’s elections, although Malacanang has kept mum on this, at times even saying that the President’s frequent sorties to her district was only to manifest her affection to her “cabalens.”
Ocampo said that his Bayan Muna partylist would support whoever would challenge the President in such a congressional race in the second district. So far, Prof. Randy David already announced he would challenge Mrs. Arroyo.
This time, however, they are appealing to Pres. Arroyo, before her term ends next year, to finally build the bridge towards this town’s poblacion, to link them to rescuers and relief goods at least during bad weather, and their sick to hospitals and clinics any time of the year.
In an interview with Punto, Vice Mayor Bajun Lacap issued anew the appeal to Pres. Arroyo “as a fellow Capampangan”. Affected barangay leaders had initially appealed for the bridge construction way back when Mrs. Arroyo was still vice president, he noted.
As of yesterday, the nine barangays could not yet be accessed readily, as currents in the Pampanga River remained strong.
Lacap reiterated his plea after learning that Mrs. Arroyo was again in her hometown in Lubao last Wednesday afternoon to distribute relief goods, even though reports from the Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council (PDCC) indicated that floods in the town had already subsided last Monday when the President was also there for relief goods distribution. Last Wednesday’s visit was the President’s 29th to the second district so far this year.
Lacap recalled that thrice during past visits of Mrs. Arroyo to Masantol and other parts of Pampanga’s fourth district, he took to pasting on his breast a masking tape marked “tete king Alauli (bridge at Alauli)” to which he pointed whenever he neared the President to remind her of the project. This, despite objections from the Presidential Security Group, he noted.
“One time she saw me pointing to the marked tape, she only smiled,” he said. He said that the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) reportedly finished a design for the bridge some three years ago, but that there has been no development on the project since then.
“Now we’d be satisfied even if we are given ‘tete matsing’ or a bridge good enough for monkeys,” he quipped.
He noted that when the Pampanga River swells, folk in the nine isolated barangays have to take a circuitous route via Calumpit in Bulacan and Apalit and Macababe, Pampanga to reach their poblacion. “We don’t bring our sick to doctors at the poblacion because of this, unless it’s really an urgent case,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) regional office said the President arrived at about 5:30 p.m. last Wednesday in Barangay Baruya in Lubao to distribute relief goods, although PDCC officer Emmy Villavicencio said that flooded areas in the town had already dried up.
Last Sunday, the President had distributed relief goods to flood victims in Guagua, also within her district, before proceeding to Lubao the following day to distribute relief goods in Barangay San Agustin, turn over bamboo desks to an elementary school in Baragay Sta. Catalina, inaugurate a water supply system in Barangay Concepcion, and inspect a road project in Barangay San Miguel.
Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo, who was guest speaker of public school teachers in Mabalacat in Pampanga’s first district while the President was in Lubao last Monday, said “we are wondering why she is overconcentrating in Pampanga, specially the second district”
“For a president with a constituency in the entire country, it would be at the least too much of a bias if you concentrate it in one district unless she has political plans. We are watching whether she would opt to run for congress as a minimum safety net against the possibility of being out of power entirely and being prosecuted once there is a change of government under the opposition,” Ocampo said.
There have been nagging reports that Mrs. Arroyo will run for congress in her district in next year’s elections, although Malacanang has kept mum on this, at times even saying that the President’s frequent sorties to her district was only to manifest her affection to her “cabalens.”
Ocampo said that his Bayan Muna partylist would support whoever would challenge the President in such a congressional race in the second district. So far, Prof. Randy David already announced he would challenge Mrs. Arroyo.
