Is there no option but big Laiban?

Oct. 16, I wrote about the National Kidney and Transplant Institute. Supposedly a new wing of the state hospital is to be equipped worth P750 million, but no public bidding. Work is being rushed so President Arroyo can inaugurate it in Mar. To which NKTI boss Dr. Enrique T. Ona replies:

“We envision the wing to become the most advanced and complete diagnostic facility in a government hospital. It originally was the first of a two-phase project of a 400-bed women’s hospital, 35-percent funded by a Dutch government grant, sponsored by Philips Medical. NKTI will bankroll the 65 percent from existing funds and loan, no subsidy from the national government. The NKTI Board of Trustees and NEDA approved the project in July 2007. Delays on our part and changes in the Dutch government resulted in the project being withdrawn last July.

“But building construction already had commenced in Dec. 2008, with architectural designs and equipment specifications finalized by the constructors and suppliers working closely since 2007. That is why a regular bidding on this project is no longer feasible. Rest assured that we are pursuing an alternative mode of purchase consistent with the Procurement Reform Act.”

All I can say is, the no bidding still doesn’t wash. The Ombudsman had better look into this.

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Their long march on Wednesday may not be as far as that of Sumilao farmers in 2007 from Bukidnon to Manila. But they plan it to be as stirring. Hundreds of tribesmen and farmers are trekking 148 km. from Gen. Nakar, Quezon, to oppose the erection of the Laiban Dam in Tanay, Rizal. By the time they reach Malacañang on the ninth day, Nov. 12, they hope to have raised awareness of the project’s peril to them, to vicinity lowlanders, and the country at large.

Thirty thousand farmers and Dumagat and Remontado tribe folk face eviction from upland homesteads to yield to the 28,000-hectare reservoir-cum-hydroelectric plant. Towering 115 meters above the mountaintop, Laiban would pose a constant overflow risk to thickly populated Rizal and Quezon, the way San Roque dam flooded Pangasinan and Tarlac during recent super-typhoon Pepeng. All over the world (except for Three Gorges in China) nations are shunning big dams because of attendant environment ruin. Despoiling the Tanay mountains would choke surrounding waterfalls and orchards, further warm nearby Metro Manila, and worsen siltation of Laguna de Bay fish pens below. The MWSS exaggerates that Laiban dam would provide 1,900 million liters a day of water to 5.5 million people in southern Metro Manila and Rizal. But the cost of tap water will zoom up by half. And the social, ecological and security blow hardly make the multibillion-peso dam worthwhile. Accompanied by conservationists and religious leaders, the marchers will ask President Gloria Arroyo to consider alternatives to Laiban. For, even Central and Northern Luzon development planners are worrying about Laiban’s harsh effects on the Sierra Madre forests.

En route to the Palace, the Lakad Laban sa Laiban Dam will stop by the MWSS head office in Diliman, Quezon City. There they will demand that Administrator Diosdado Allado answer some ticklish questions. Why, for one, is he secretly negotiating for the dam construction when the work requires public bidding because long listed as government priority? Why hasn’t he briefed private sector reps and the NEDA, headed by Arroyo, about his negotiations a mere eight months to the end of the admin’s term? Most of all, why is he feigning that Laiban is the only solution to water shortage in the national capital in the next decade? This, in light of recent studies by hydrologists and economists. Small dams and water impounders are now favored worldwide because of mush less damage to hillsides and perils to low-lying communities.

Environment group Save Sierra Madre Network will lead the march. Joining are the Freedom from Debt Coalition and the Pambansang Kilusan ng mga Samahang Magsasaka. The most publicly influential supporter is the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines. Last July the bishops already expressed aversion for ejectment of 4,400 families residing around the Kaliwa River that MWSS wants to dam up. They too want to know if the MWSS has come up with tap water sources other than deadly Laiban.

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CORRECTION: Hernando Decena, inventor of Agri-Freeze technology (Gotcha, 30 Oct. 2009), had sent the wrong mobile number. It should be 0917-5123051.

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Reader Mars E. Ochoa rues the scant reward to Army Pfc. Venancio Ancheta, who drowned in Ondoy floods after rescuing 20 Laguna residents:

“Government is unfair. Ancheta and six more soldiers killed rescuing civilians deserved better benefits than their heirs received. The truck driver who broke the ban and sneaked into Iraq for big bucks and was hostaged got more: a house and lot. To keep him alive GMA even recalled our troops from the Coalition of the willing.”

(Note: The Army posthumously promoted Ancheta one rank higher, so his family could collect the few thousands of pesos more in benefits due a corporal. He was awarded the Bronze Cross, before his remains were flown to Zamboanga for interment.)

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“My fear of the future is balanced by my hope in it. Fear without hope is dread. It will lead to a dead end named despair.” Shafts of Light, Fr. Guido Arguelles, SJ

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