NO TEARS here but all stories rising from the flooded waters around the City of San Fernando wrought by Typhoons Maring and Nando.
No King Canute is Mayor Oscar S. Rodriguez who could have commanded the floods to recede, and just as readily be disobeyed by the waters.
So blaming the mayor for the floods is just as incredulously irrational as when President Cory was blamed for the various natural calamities that befell the land during her term, not the least of which were the 1991 earthquake and the 1992 eruptions of Mount Pinatubo.
Far from finding fault with Mayor Oca, he, along with the city’s so-called flood czar, Marnie Castro, should even be recognized for minimizing the flooding in the city. All city roads were passable at the height of the greatly reduced floodwaters. Even the great ocean that was that stretch of the Gapan-Olongapo Road around the area of the Car-world and BMW showrooms in heavy rains past was easily passable even to the lowest of the lowered cars. Proof positive that the declogging of canals and esteros done last summer actually worked.
With the Sagip-Ilog project on-stream, we expect less and less flooding in the city in the coming years.
It is not Mayor Oca though but 3rd District Rep. Aurelio Gonzales who is getting brickbats from the homeowners of St. Jude Village for the flooding there.
Cong Dong it was, so the billboards announced at the time of construction, that “projected” the rehabilitation of the road leading to the village from the corner of Lazatin Blvd. The road was elevated by almost one meter but only on a length of some 200 meters, with corresponding drainage provided.
Now, all the waters coming southward from the fork of MacArthur Highway and Lazatin Blvd. make a detour to St. Jude Village.
Yes, my old trusty Toyota Crown nearly floated when I left the daughter’s house morning of Tuesday last week. I counted no less than three cars conking out in the flood waters by the gate of the village.
The villagers pray for Cong Dong to do something about this, else he could lose their vote in 2010. St. Jude Village has over a thousand occupied units. Guess its voting population from there.
With the rains at their heaviest, an expanse of floodwaters limited passage through the Sindalan stretch of MacArthur Highway, near the regional office of the Department of Public Works and Highways.
Yes, that very area where a great number of fully-grown, decades-old acacia and camachile trees were recently cut down.
Nature’s revenge is upon us. Said an environmentalist friend. We are paying the wages for the sins of the DPWH and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, they that perpetrated what has been dubbed as the MacArthur Highway Massacre. Of the trees, that is.
His damnation of the DPWH and DENR was not the least swayed by an engineer’s reasoned argument that the flood there was caused by the ongoing construction of drainage canals: The open canals had to be dammed to prevent water from getting through the construction sites so it spilled at the highway.
Absolutely invalid for a reason, my friend insisted: The absence of the trees – their massive roots, specifically, to absorb and hold the rainwater – was the principal cause of the flooding there.
Trash – from Angeles City – flooded down to San Fernando with the rains. I guess it’s time for the people of San Fernando to join Auxiliary Bishop Pablo David in casting a curse on the people of Angeles who throw their garbage in the waterways. Talagang kasumpa-sumpa kayo!
No King Canute is Mayor Oscar S. Rodriguez who could have commanded the floods to recede, and just as readily be disobeyed by the waters.
So blaming the mayor for the floods is just as incredulously irrational as when President Cory was blamed for the various natural calamities that befell the land during her term, not the least of which were the 1991 earthquake and the 1992 eruptions of Mount Pinatubo.
Far from finding fault with Mayor Oca, he, along with the city’s so-called flood czar, Marnie Castro, should even be recognized for minimizing the flooding in the city. All city roads were passable at the height of the greatly reduced floodwaters. Even the great ocean that was that stretch of the Gapan-Olongapo Road around the area of the Car-world and BMW showrooms in heavy rains past was easily passable even to the lowest of the lowered cars. Proof positive that the declogging of canals and esteros done last summer actually worked.
With the Sagip-Ilog project on-stream, we expect less and less flooding in the city in the coming years.
It is not Mayor Oca though but 3rd District Rep. Aurelio Gonzales who is getting brickbats from the homeowners of St. Jude Village for the flooding there.
Cong Dong it was, so the billboards announced at the time of construction, that “projected” the rehabilitation of the road leading to the village from the corner of Lazatin Blvd. The road was elevated by almost one meter but only on a length of some 200 meters, with corresponding drainage provided.
Now, all the waters coming southward from the fork of MacArthur Highway and Lazatin Blvd. make a detour to St. Jude Village.
Yes, my old trusty Toyota Crown nearly floated when I left the daughter’s house morning of Tuesday last week. I counted no less than three cars conking out in the flood waters by the gate of the village.
The villagers pray for Cong Dong to do something about this, else he could lose their vote in 2010. St. Jude Village has over a thousand occupied units. Guess its voting population from there.
With the rains at their heaviest, an expanse of floodwaters limited passage through the Sindalan stretch of MacArthur Highway, near the regional office of the Department of Public Works and Highways.
Yes, that very area where a great number of fully-grown, decades-old acacia and camachile trees were recently cut down.
Nature’s revenge is upon us. Said an environmentalist friend. We are paying the wages for the sins of the DPWH and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, they that perpetrated what has been dubbed as the MacArthur Highway Massacre. Of the trees, that is.
His damnation of the DPWH and DENR was not the least swayed by an engineer’s reasoned argument that the flood there was caused by the ongoing construction of drainage canals: The open canals had to be dammed to prevent water from getting through the construction sites so it spilled at the highway.
Absolutely invalid for a reason, my friend insisted: The absence of the trees – their massive roots, specifically, to absorb and hold the rainwater – was the principal cause of the flooding there.
Trash – from Angeles City – flooded down to San Fernando with the rains. I guess it’s time for the people of San Fernando to join Auxiliary Bishop Pablo David in casting a curse on the people of Angeles who throw their garbage in the waterways. Talagang kasumpa-sumpa kayo!
