Not very long ago, I saw Hon. Rey Ompoc, the captain of Barangay Mabolo, this city, on television. His face was etched with a serious look of concern over the sad plight of his constituents who were recent fire victims. He mentioned that fewer houses at a sitio called Lahing-lahing would have been reduced to ashes had there been easy access to them by firefighters. It appeared that most of the residences that were burned were built across the creek and beyond the reach of fire trucks. When asked, Capt. Ompoc, said that he was to confer with the city mayor, on wide ranging urgent topics, upon the latter’s visit the day following the captain’s TV appearance.
I was very interested to follow that news story. It was good copy. Indeed, the next day, His Honor, Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama, was caught, also by TV cameras, jumping from one burnt pile to another not far from a makeshift foot bridge that was dangerously hanging across the creek. In the accompanying interview, he pointed to the narrow creek that looked heavily silted, as a big problem to address.
Unless the city planned to build a bridge, the condition of the waterway certainly had nothing much to do with the conflagration. To make the bridge relevant, it would have to be wide enough to allow the fire trucks, answering fire alarms, to rumble over. But, the few houses across the creek, most of which were razed down by the fire, were obviously constructed within the legal easement. Those structures were not supposed to be built there in the first place. In point of fact, they were erected against the wall of a memorial park without the apparent consent of the park management. So, why did the mayor mention of its being “a big problem”?
The answer came in the form of the news about Cotabato City. Rio Grande, (what an appropriate name?), has been serving as the province’s channel towards the sea. Historically, no matter how heavy the rains were in that province, floods were not forthcoming. The river was so wide and deep that it always just absorbed whatever volume of water there was.
But, in the last few years, water lilies began to grow. Those plants grew unabatedly because there was no serious effort to rid of them. The pictures carried by national news and video footages beamed by TV networks showed that they have covered practically the whole breadth of what was once Rio Grande. Rain waters had no ways to flow thru. The river’s exit was so much clogged by the lilies that the waters had to seek proverbial levels in the form of low lying areas of the city. All told, a great majority of Cotabato City submerged.
This must be the “big problem” Mayor Rama referred to. He observed that the creek at Lahing-lahing became a one meter canal and the bed was quite silted that he could even walk in many directions by stepping on the dried portions of the alluvium. In that dire condition, not unlike that of Rio Grande in Cotabato, he claimed, floods were to be expected and the concomitant dangers to lives and property inevitable.
The solution was obvious. “No brainer”, in the favorite words of Sir Johnvic, my former corporate boss. In order to protect many residents from the tragedy called floods, the mayor had to restore the creek to its former width and dredge the silt away. As an urgent preventive measure to an imminent catastrophe, Mayor Rama has to order it done quickly. But, in the process, structures, manifestly illegal, had to be dismantled. The emotions of the owners of these doomed houses, to be stoked expectedly by political adversaries, will, no doubt, paint the mayor as heartless tyrant.
The mayor’s options are hard. Will the mayor allow the monstrosity of the presently clogged Rio Grande in Cotabato City to replicate at Mabolo, or risk the noise of a few for the good of the many. His choice will determine the kind of leader we have in our city. May he have the wisdom of Solomon.