Corruption, ineptness cause killer floods

“Presidentiables” made news doling relief goods plastered with their names and photos. The self-publicity was cheap. They used Storm Ondoy’s floods to make victims owe them debts of gratitude for “kindness”, translatable into votes. Observers had to advise that the hungry accept the aid but reject the abusers. Some called for filing of electioneering charges. An Internet poll even asked if the candidates’ conduct was proper.

It’s simple. For politics or what, it’s always in bad taste to broadcast your charity work. As philanthropist R.G. LeTourneau said, “If you give because it pays, it won’t pay.” In the Bible is the story too of the Pharisee bragging at the altar about his big alms donations compared to the publican’s. Crass self-promoters give only because they expect something in return.

As detestable was the Arroyo admin’s duplicity in the midst of misery. To critics of its disaster mishandling, Malacañang said to set politics aside and link arms in crisis. At the same time, though, it sneaked in two partisan acts. It mobilized Congress cronies to quash the impeachment rap against Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez, the First Couple’s protector. It also had Comelec gofers reject the Lakas founders’ opposition to merger with Gloria Arroyo’s Kampi. All this hypocrisy, while everyone else was busy helping afflicted countrymen.

Stepped up, meanwhile, was the “vice presidentiable” Secretary of Interior’s ad campaign: “Ang DILG ay tahimik na nagtatrabaho, kaya marami kaming nagagawa.” The STAR reader Wilson Dy Chua wryly noted: “If indeed he’s a silent doer, then why are supposed ‘Friends of Ronnie Puno’ spending millions of pesos advertising whatever it is he’s doing.”

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Officials are blaming the floods on Ondoy’s extraordinarily heavy rainfall in Metro Manila and Central and Southern Tagalog. In conspiracy no one dares talk about the man-made causes: the deadly combination of corruption, incompetence, and recklessness.

But Filipinos know better. Reader Marlyn Joven, for one, shares: “I strongly suspect drainage canals were clogged due to roadwork. Classic example: the corner of Roxas Boulevard and Buendia Avenue, Pasay City, got flooded for the first time ever during a recent storm. When the manhole was opened, it was full of construction debris and sandbags left by the contractor of Maynilad Water. They sandbagged the drain to stop rainwater from flowing to their work area, then left it there. That caused floods all the way to the Central Bank half a kilometer away. We have since complained to Maynilad and city hall.”

Another letter: “In the ‘80s San Antonio Village, Makati, never had floods. Then they paved the South Luzon Expressway, and the floods came. The problem was traced to the contractor who clogged up the sewers with concrete. The MMDA compounds everything by not clearing up esteros (creeks) of trash.”

Clearly from the two letters, DPWH and city engineers do not bother to check private contractors’ work quality, while the MMDA is sleeping on the job. Bribes make them look the other way.

U.P.-Diliman hydrologists and marine scientists, meanwhile, note the messy constriction of waterways. Provident Villages, for instance, rose in the ‘70s on the Marikina River’s catch basin. The subdivisions’ dikes were built right on the riverbank, with no six-meter setback. How the builder got the permit to do this is criminal; its license has since been revoked, but for other reasons. The river not only is silted over and full of garbage from surrounding communities. Factories also choke river bends, onto which these spew industrial waste.

Slash-and-burn farmers, charcoal makers and quarrymen have denuded the nearby Antipolo hills. Environment officials have not lifted a finger against watershed destroyers.

Urban planner Arch. Felino Palafox Jr. cries that nobody is following the Metro Manila development plan crafted in 1977. The blueprint had pinpointed flood-prone areas like Marikina and Cainta, yet these have since become densely populated middle-class enclaves. It takes 32 signatures to develop a subdivision, 14 to erect a building, yet not one of them cares. Government built the Manggahan Floodway to divert floodwaters from eastern Metro Manila and Rizal onto Laguna de Bay. But it never dug a counterpart Parañaque Spillway to eject the water onto Manila Bay. So the Laguna water rises with the rains to inundate lakeshore towns. And like the Marikina, Pasig and other rivers, the lake’s dredging is long overdue.

In non-flood areas, homeowners and squatters alike landfill esteros to build dwellings. Their only difference is that the former have septic tanks while the latter don’t, but local officials coddle both types of lawbreakers. This is happening in all cities nationwide.

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From reader Atty. Joe Ngaw: “Instead of buying expensive rubber boats, why don’t flood-prone barangays just fabricate rafts from bamboo? Bamboo rafts are puncture-proof, no inflation needed, low maintenance, and easy to store. Material and labor are plentiful. Wala pang tong-pats.”

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“The road of life widens for those who love; it narrows for those who do not love. How wide or how narrow the road is depends on what you nurture in your heart.” Shafts of Light, Fr. Guido Arguelles, SJ

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E-mail: jariusbondoc@workmail.com. –Jarius Bondoc (The Philippine Star)