Highway-railway drainage disasters

Out of the many images shared about our latest rain out and wash out experience, the big surprises must have been the SLEX or South Luzon Expressway being flooded along with sections of EDSA parallel to the MRT. Some people were simply surprised, many were annoyed about the long detour, but how many of us actually stepped back to ask what caused these pocket flooding all over Metro Manila and similarly developed locations? Yes, the question has been asked before and the reason the authorities won’t or are afraid to deal with it is because doing so will open a can of worms called engineering violations, corruption and legal consequences.

I suspect that as far as the SLEX and EDSA-MRT is concerned only two things are to blame for the flooding. The first would be bad engineering where builders and engineers were so focused on their project, on their construction, backed by government officials or private developers hell-bent on finishing their pet projects even if it would cause future problems with serious consequences.

Time and again, the DPWH under various administrations have built islands and flower boxes along EDSA, Roxas Boulevard and similar major roads unmindful or utterly ignorant of the fact that they were blocking the path of rain water, resulting in seasonal flooding. That portion of EDSA that flooded along the MRT is yet again another example of stupid engineering resulting in unintended “dams” that cause seasonal flooding.

As far as the SLEX is concerned, yesterday was not the first time I’ve heard of “flooding” along the toll way. This occurrence has taken place more frequently and it would not be far fetched to suspect that the seasonal flooding is being caused by real estate developments that now use the SLEX as their unwilling “storm drain.” In case you’ve all forgotten, most of the open land stretching north and south of the SLEX used to be rice lands and wetlands. Unfortunately, corrupt officials from the DENR, DAR and DA during previous administrations allowed the illegal conversion of said lands. They of course justified their wanton disregard for the law as necessary for progress and urban development.

Unfortunately those idiots obviously never had hands on experience on the function and role of wetlands and how these naturally create a course for water to flow and water as you know will find its course or create a new one if you block it. The SLEX cut right in the middle of those wetlands but engineers provided flow through or drainage systems so water could cross over. But from the looks of it, recent developments as far back as three years ago have “disturbed” the Wetlands or out right filled them like reclamation areas.

For now we have floods. Later in the future, there will be more consequences as the area soak up water and weakens substrates and potentially become a geo hazard. As water continues to redirect itself, we can also expect more flooding along the SLEX and possibly nearby areas previously unaffected by such. Typhoon Maring may have brought us a lot of wet headaches but she also revealed to us greater cause for concern. Now who in the PNoy administration is concerned enough, brave enough and wise enough to do something about this potential ecological disaster created by greed and urban development or should we rename the SLEX: “Daang Matubig – hindi Matuwid”.

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The problem with a buffet of disasters is people tend to focus only on what affects them directly or really pisses them off. For now most people are talking and thinking of the two day down pour that has Filipinos stir crazy or slightly depressed from being damp and cooped up. As far as the middle class and upper class Netizens are concerned, they are pissed with Janet Lim Napoles, Senators and Congressmen over the pork barrel scam. The anger of the middle class and the upper class has nothing to do with social or economic class but the fact that these are the very people who got robbed as taxpayers and then insulted by the “I’m the Leader therefore serve me” mentality of our legislators.

Unfortunately little was ever said or heard about “police crimes” that have been pouring or floating by like the garbage dumps on the Marikina and Pasig Rivers. From the Atimonan massacre, the rubout of the Ozamiz gang leaders, the ambush of the Businesswoman named Decena and the murder of two bible study leaders or Cell group members of the Jesus Is Lord movement, all these in just a matter of months and occurring during the PNP anniversary. The bad part is all these police related crimes or crimes committed by cops are no longer an exception but has become so common place it no longer surprises the general public. To make matters worse, the crimes are no longer petty or about simple corruption that earned them the moniker “Kotong Cops”. Today’s common police crimes are about premeditated murder, contract killing, and criminal cover-up with murder.

Perhaps now is as good a time as any to ask if it’s time to break up the Philippine National Police to a more manageable, more professional regionalized or provincial organization much like what many local governments in the US have done. Perhaps we should now study raising the bar in terms of over all competency in the recruitment of police officers and giving them compensation big enough to say no to bribes, with enough benefits that you would have to be a total idiot to risk losing your job, and competitive enough that each regional or provincial unit would be so proud to be a cop and not a killer-cop.

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On a related topic, the recent shooting of an American diver known for assisting in the recovery of the late Secretary Robredo got me to thinking why we have continued to allow poorly educated, poorly trained people acting as Security guards to carry guns. Many of the countries I’ve visited don’t allow such a practice and at the most they are given batons, Tasers, or tear gas guns and a radio. Their job is generally to monitor, restrain and report to their supervisor or to the police. It’s not their job to be pistoleros or engage criminals in armed combat.

All the guns should go to the police and yes maybe for armored van security personnel. But that should be the limit. Too many people have been accidentally or intentionally shot by irate security guards and we need to put a stop to it.

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