Grow some balls
s early as 2016, the City has already approved its master drainage plan. It’s been two years now and they are still on the negotiating table with Limketkai as the latter refuses to allow passage of the drainage system in their area, freezing the whole project that the bigger city badly needs.
Over the past two years we have seen how private cars float like rubber boats at the Limketkai parking areas every time heavy rains pour. Even with just moderate rainfall, half of their area always transforms into a big swimming pool. Of all parties concern they should be the first to ask help from the city government on how they can better improve the water outlets in their jurisdiction. Yet we find them as the adversary who stopped a project that could very well save not just their place of business but the whole barangay which is highly susceptible to floods. Then we ask, why would they every stop a drainage project? According to the Limketkai group, they can’t yield to the project because they fear that it won’t be sustained. However, they are committed to clean the drainage from time to time. I mean really? Just that? Perhaps they have have not yet felt the gravity of the problem, no one has yet filed a case against them thinking that the flood is an act of nature. But with their refusal to heed to a government project that could improve their drainage system maybe they should now be held responsible for every damaged car aguilarchurchill@gmail.com or property caused by floods in their vicinity. It is high time that they should be accountable as well with the loss of profit from all their tenants every time flash floods occur in their area. Maybe then they can see that they are actually now the main problem, and not the floods.
On another note, I was more shocked on how lightly the city is taking this obstacle. By this time I was already expecting for the city council especially the committee on public utilities to be in rage and to rag the establishment with all sanctions it could give in delaying a crucial project. I was also expecting the mayor to exercise his political will to make sure that the welfare of the greater majority is held more supreme over and above the interests of these rich businessmen. Our local government has the power of eminent domain, why have they not started expropriating the area yet?
Again this goes to both the city council and the local chief executive. We did not elect them to go easy on the rich people, we elected them to look after the welfare of the greater majority. A proper drainage in Agora will greatly help all the students and employees of USTP, all the patrons of the neighboring establishments, all the residents of Barangay Lapasan and ultimately the whole city.
Just because there are no casualties on the flooding that regularly occurs in that area does not mean there are no damages caused by it. And since there is already funding for the said drainage system from the DPWH, what else is keeping our local government from exercising the basic powers of the state to ensure that such project gets implemented as soon as possible? The time to negotiate is long over. It’s time for our local politicians to grow balls and make this project happen. It is within their power,and they are duty bound to deliver this.
It’s been two years since the approval of the plan. That’s two years. And the amount of damage continues. Or are they just so afraid of losing the support of these businessmen in the coming elections?