How to ensure future floods

I use the above title not as an expression of defeatism but in the hope of catching the attention of those who believe they’re the ones being alluded to by this article as it unfolds. That, of course, is true if there is still some degree of concern remaining in their hearts.

Last  Sunday, on our way to the Redemptorist Church, we drove through a bridge near the former SVD Formation house (which I believe, is now transformed to a Montessori kind of a school for toddlers). While on the bridge, I noticed a construction on the bank of the creek opposite the Formation House. It appeared to me that the civil works encroached upon the dried portion of the waterway. What with observable columns being indented about a meter from the normal bank!  If such perception were accurate, what would result there from is the expansion of the area of the privately owned lot and the consequent narrowing of the creek.

It is possible that the technical description of the land on which the construction is made, when plotted on the ground, extends to that portion of the creek where the land owner has apparently authorized the building. In that case, he can profess not having encroached upon a public domain and argue that his construction is perfectly legal. If that is a fact, we can expect that the adjacent land owners shall, when the time to erect their own edifice comes, build their structures similarly. The net effect is the inevitable shrinking of the creek.

On the other hand, unless something is wrong with my eyesight, there is no denying what I saw. The physical appearance of the construction clearly shows that it is being made on a piece of property, which lawyers normally describe as being beyond the commerce of man, meaning that the building is erected on a land where such structure can not be allowed, not even supposedly tolerated. And yes, it I observed correctly, no one would feel hurt if I sighed “By what gall!”

Call it social conscience or what but what came to my mind was to refer the matter to the government agency which ought to know the existence of ongoing constructions in our city. I then sent a simple text message to Cebu City Engr. Antonio Sanchez. In plain language, I informed him of my layman’s observation. Indeed, I could be wrong or could, in the end be, perhaps sounding like the boy who cried wolf!  Quickly came his reply, like he usually does to such pleas. Engr. Sanchez answered that it being a Sunday, he would send his men to investigate the very following working day. I was a little bit taken aback by his use of such a strong word as “investigate”. But then again, he was exacting in his language.

       Whether the structure in made on a privately owned lot (use or abuse of it being guaranteed by the title) which happens to encompass a part of the creek, or erected unlawfully deep into the bed of the waterway (in which case it is a nuisance per se and therefore can be abated quickly), it surely is bound to constrict the flow of the water and cause floods in the vicinity. That’s natural and there is no doubt that it will occur. This early, the government must use all its resources to protect our citizenry. The investigation promised by Engr. Sanchez must be pushed through with dispatch at least before added expense by the land owner is wasted. Without our doing that, we are ensuring that rampaging floodwaters will be inescapable.

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