DPWH Sec. Villar looks at the flooding in Cebu

Finally the cat is out of the bag when no less than President Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte himself gave us the biggest breaking news ever that we’ve heard during the 69th anniversary of the Philippine Air Force (PAF) in Clark Field when he named five Police Generals that were allegedly involved in illegal drugs.

They are Deputy Director General and former Region-7 Police Director Marcelo Garbo Jr., Bernardo Diaz, Edgardo Tinio, Joel Pagdilao and Daanbantayan Mayor Vicente Loot. All were tagged by President Duterte as “Drug Protectors” and were headlines in all the local and national news.

This is one campaign promise of President Duterte that he has fulfilled and of course, we can expect that these Police Generals would be granted due process and considered innocent until proven guilty.

But President Duterte is the kind of person who doesn’t go about accusing anyone, much less a Police General of criminality unless he has A-one intelligence reports on the activities of these persons of authority involved in the illicit drug trade.

As the weeks go by, we shall see the unraveling of the truth on how these people got themselves involved in this illicit drug scandal.

This big breaking news had Netizens saluting President Duterte for his courage, as he is the first President to come out in the open to accuse PNP Police Generals of their involvement in the illicit drug trade.

Next on President Duterte’s list are the so many Mayors who are also involved in the illegal drug trade, Now that’s a list worth waiting for.

Abangan!

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Last Friday, Metro Cebu experienced the great Flash Flood of July 1 and yesterday, just five days after that incident, the Ramon Aboitiz, Foundation Inc. (RAFI) through MEGA Cebu held a consultative meeting with Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Mark Villar as facilitated by the office of Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Dino at the Eduardo Aboitiz Studies Center (EASC) with one goal in mind, to find solutions to the flash floods that inundated Metro Cebu.

That flooding as reported by MEGA Cebu’s Engr. Fortunato Sanchez, Jr. started from 3:45 to 5 p.m. and was only 55 millimeters of rainfall. So why was Cebu flooded so quickly?

Jun Sanchez gave us a powerpoint presentation of Jun Sanchez and after him, DPWH Regional Director Ador Canlas also gave us a photo collage of the extent of the flooding in Metro Cebu, notably Cebu City and Mandaue City.

We learned that there were many major factors that caused the flooding. The biggest culprit of all is the informal settlers living along the riverbanks, notably the Lahug Creek, the Guadalupe River, Kinalumsan River and Subangdaku River.

Notable amongst them is the flooding around SM City areas, which can be traced to the hundreds of informal settlers living along the banks of the Subangdaku River. The biggest problem was the indiscriminate throwing of garbage that clogged many of our creeks, rivers and canals.

Flooding was also bad along A.S. Fortuna Ave. between Rolling Hills Funeral Homes and the Volvo dealership. And to think that a DPWH contractor took three years to construct a huge box culvert in this area, causing massive traffic congestion during the construction. When the rains came, it was as if there was no drainage project at all!

Dondi Joseph, chairman of the Metro Cebu Development Coordinating Board (MCDCB) warned us that La Niña is coming by November, and if we don’t do something about this flooding problem we can see more flooding in the future.

I take my hat off to Presidential Assistant Michael Dino for going out of his way to facilitate that meeting in RAFI with Mega Cebu and Sec. Villar because he was in Manila when he got reports that Cebu was being inundated. He wasted no time in asking Sec. Villar to come to Cebu for a side trip on his way to Boracay.

I found Sec. Villar to be a regular guy who listens to you intently and Roberto “Bobby” Aboitiz, co-chair of MCDCB also appreciated Sec. Villar for responding immediately and coming to Cebu to find ways to solve our flooding problems.

After the more than an hour-long presentation in RAFI, Sec. Villar then proceeded to the Cebu Country Club to have lunch with the local government leaders and talk about the flooding problems.

Notable amongst them is Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Paz Radaza with Rep. Aileen Radaza, Talisay City Mayor Eduardo Gullas, Mandaue City Mayor Luigi Quisumbing, Cordova Mayor Therese Sitoy-Cho, Consolacion Mayor Teresa Pepito Alegado, Rep. Red Durano, Rep. Jonas Cortes and Rep. Ben-Hur Salimbangon. Visibly absent were Cebu Governor Hilario Davide III and Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña who is at odds with Presidential Assistant Michael Dino, so he didn’t bother to join and meet Sec. Villar.

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