Prioritize flood control... not the NLEX/SLEX!

Last Thursday, the Rotary Club of Cebu (Mother Club) passed the hat around and collected from the attending members P30,000 for the victims of the Metro Manila floods. This same amount of money was doubled by our club funds, to the tune of P60,000 and sent to our sister club, the Rotary Club of Bagumbayan. It may not be much, but our members know that the very energetic members of the Rotary Club of Bagumbayan would make sure that these donations would reach the people in need.

The Star Group of companies too has launched a fund drive for the flood victims… we hope that our kind hearted readers would help and support this fund drive… after all, this is where we Filipinos always shine… in times of calamities where the indomitable spirit of the Filipino people thrives.

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CNN last Thursday evening found it fit to finally feature the great flood in the Philippines… five days later and sent Alex Zolbert, its senior correspondent, off to Marikina City for a firsthand look on how bad the rains have affected the Philippines. So far, the Aquino government has not sought for any international help… although the United States offered a hundred thousand dollars in financial aid. What government’s do not understand is, it is the poor Filipino residents whose homes were inundated by the flood who need that money badly to repair their homes and more. So if you ask me, the US offer is much too small. But thanks anyway.

I liked the front page report from The Philippine STAR yesterday that quoted Pres. Benigno “P-Noy” Aquino III making an appeal to the people not to lose hope, saying “There are no immediate solutions. This is not ‘instant noodles’ and solution is not instant.” I fully agree that the solutions to the flooding problem are not instant. But under the Aquino regime… there really is none because whatever flood control plans prepared by the previous government were put on hold and two years into the Presidency of P-Noy there’s nothing in the pipeline for Metro Manila.

We already saw that floating garbage that clogged most of Manila Bay which was also featured by CNN. Have we already forgotten that at the end of August 2011, almost exactly a year ago an embarrassing trash slide struck Baguio City? Years ago, 90 squatters died in a trash slide in a dumpsite in Quezon City. Decades later, another trash clogs Manila Bay. No one learned any lessons from these embarrassing episodes in our nation.

During the President’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) nothing was mentioned about flood control projects, but yes there is money for the Reproductive Health (RH) bill, which is a priority in the Aquino government. But there are P35 billion big bucks for the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) and South Expressway (SLEX) Connector project.

At this point, I’d like to suggest to the President to put the brakes on this project and realign this money to flood control projects. What good is connecting the NLEX and SLEX when Metro Manilans drown everytime it rains? Mind you… flood control in my book is still a “band-aid” solution. The big solution for me is to depopulate Metro Manila and spread the people to the many parts of this country that are still sparsely populated. But then, doing this could only cause more headaches to a centralized government.

At this point, there is still no official name of the great flood that has fallen upon Metro Manila because we usually name only typhoons. Some texts I’m getting is giving a name called the RH Flood for “Rain Hard,” another name was Rumaragasang Habagat which also stands for RH.

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Last Thursday morning, we huffed over to SM City Cebu for the opening of PLDT/Smart Communications, Inc. Interactive Tech Hub, dubbed the Jump Experience Center. Being curious as to what all this is about, Perry Bayani, Smart’s Group Head of Sales and Customer Service told the audience that this was not a store, rather it was their way of allowing present and potential customers to experience Long Term Evolution (LTE) and preview the future of technology where one can have a “hands-on” on the new Smart phones.

Indeed, most of us customers are often lured by advertisements of gadgets and high tech products… but our low-tech minds can only use the bare minimum of our cellphones or other technology gadgets. As Smart External Customer Service Manager Veronica Gabaldon pointed out, almost all brands of cellphones or tablet devices can be seen, touched and used in the Jump Center and best of all, if you don’t like the product, you don’t have to buy them.

I use a Samsung Galaxy Note, I’ve always been curious with Samsung’s Galaxy S-3. It was the first time for me to try out this amazing product from Samsung at the Jump Center where you could also experience blindingly fast digital speeds and get quickly into the future of technology.

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