Mr. Simeon Romarate, the Executive Director of the Cebu City Risk Reduction and Management Office made an accurate statement that high strung officials of Cebu City should take note of and better still, work on. When he said that the growing economy of Cebu City caused the influx of migrants and their presence in our city has altered the living conditions here, he hit the proverbial nail on its head. One of such altered conditions leads to the misuse of electric power and an unfortunate consequence of which is the occurrence of fire.
For a better understanding of the statement of Mr. Romarate, it is worth revisiting a social theory explained by Dean Jeremias Montemayor, in the early 60's. In his book Ours To Share, Dean Montemayor traced the bourgeoning populations of urban centers. I am sure that if he, while writing that book, had the chance to survey Cebu City, our city could be the most appropriate example.
If we study closely the personalities living in our immediate neighborhood, here in Cebu City, we will find out that many of them come from different regions of our country. Residing with indigenous Cebuanos in residential subdivisions are Tagalogs, Chavacanos, Ilongos, Warays, and Ilocanos, to name a few. When, at certain times, all of them attend their own social gatherings, the distinguishable Cebuano dialect gets bombarded with other regional tongues. Di na ta makadungog sa lunsay nga pinulongang Sugbuanon. This is likewise true in the more congested areas, where we also find out that there are families who migrate to our city from nearby provinces and they are, for quite obvious reasons, cloistered around patriarchal personages.
Why have they come to Cebu City? Dean Montemayor, had an answer that was too profound for me to pretend to understand. Just the same, allow me to attempt to restate his study of young migrants because what he observed many decades ago is, in my little understanding, still very much true today.
The lure of the city is irresistible to a young farm hand in the province. Why should he plow the field under the sun when he could wield the broom in air conditioned mall? Many of them do not aim at high targets because they acknowledge the fact that high school diploma could offer them only so much.
There are equally many bright boys and girls from the provinces who have higher expectations to meet. They can find these proverbial greener pastures in our city and that is why they come here rather than stay at their native homes. After showing their mettle at their entry points of employment, they assume increasing responsibilities as they rise higher in their ranks.
We see these faces of these young men and women among the hordes of vibrant city workers. Whether we like it or not, they compete with the native Cebuanos for job openings and promotions. As they are forced by sheer circumstance to work harder and in the process achieve more, they themselves become shining examples for their province mates to emulate. And what better way of emulation than by coming to our city!
Mr. Romarate has seen that from the migration of just these two groups of people, the congested state of our city, whose area has not expended, is the result. Barangay Luz, for example, has become the home of many migrants. The new additions have multiplied the number of people occupying the place on a per square meter basis. While the homes where they have stayed originally housed only a family, there are more settlers there now. The immediate result, as Mr. Romarate has seen, is the added need of electric power being carried by the same electric wires used to carry much smaller voltage. And this exponential growth of inhabitants is replicated all over the city to the horror of risk managers.
Our officials should start mapping out strategies to meet this condition head-on. First, there should be ways to control the inflow of more migrants. Perhaps, local legislation has to be crafted to achieve this direction. Second, the city government has to adopt policies designed to decongest our city. It cannot do it by itself. The solution lies in working out mutually beneficial arrangements with the local governments of the home provinces of these current city dwellers. Maybe there should be more workable ideas. The most important thing is that whatever these concepts are, our leaders have to do them now!.