Officials responsible for disaster casualties

They should account for preventable deaths and damages from floods, landslides, and fires.

That firecracker you’ll light up on New Year’s Eve may drive away imagined evil spirits. And it’ll emit smoke and particulates to haunt your child and elderly’s breathing. The fireworks frenzy multiplies carbon dirt 2000 percent – and worsens lung difficulties. Having monitored such spike, former environment secretary and climate change commissioner Heherson Alvarez warns against bawang, piccolo, and watusi. Those can cut short fingers and lives.

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After deadly storm floods and landslides, it’s easy to blame victims for refusing to evacuate. Yet for them, leaving behind meager belongings that took a lifetime to accumulate is no option. At cramped spaces in public schoolrooms they’d have even less.

Local bureaucrats and elected officials should know that. They are provided geo-hazard maps of their locales. Pinpointed are barrio strips prone to river rise, soil erosion, sea surge, tsunami, and earthquake. It is their duty to relocate endangered folk to safe ground. Prevention is preferable to rescue and rehab.

A common excuse of elected and appointed local execs is lack of funds. Yet they never run out of unworthy projects from which to kickback. Note how concrete roads invariably lead to the officials’ hilltop or beachfront manors. Another excuse is that they only inherited the problem upon taking office. But they come from long generations of political dynasties that caused then let the problems fester. Most of the country’s provinces have been ruled by the same families ever since the Spaniards devolved local posts to selected mestizos.

In cities it is easy to blame fire deaths to “faulty electrical wiring.” That’s like excusing highway collisions because of “brake failure.” Somebody got away with sloppy electrical installations in public buildings because the fire inspector let him. The latter must have been bribed or was too lazy to perform his duty, or both. That gave other firemen the chance to ask for more bribes at the scene to put out blazes.

In some jurisdictions the mayors exert influence to secure fire permits for rich friends. Or they withhold necessary funds for training and equipping of fire brigades. The result is disaster – and more kickbacks from emergency spending.

In other countries local officials are made to account for disaster deaths and damage. Here the casualties are blamed on fate.

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Rep. Jericho Nograles pooh-poohs the DOTr’s claim that dismissed MRT-3 maintenance contractors are disqualified from future government biddings. “The fact that they made it to post-qualification stage means they were qualified,” he notes.

Earlier he exposed that Busan Universal Rail Inc. (BURI) and two incorporators had participated in three recent government biddings. BURI was one of two bidders for the rail replacement of the MRT-3. Partner Busan Transport Co. of Korea joined the bidding to refurbish four coaches of the sister LRT-2. Edison Construction Development Corp. was the lone bidder for the long-term upkeep of LRT-2.

“Had we outsiders not sounded the alarm, it would have been the same crooked ways,” Nograles says.

BURI consists of Busan Transport and four Filipino dummies: Edison, TMI Corp., Tramat Mercantile, and Castan Corp. It bagged a three-year, P3.8 billion deal by secret negotiations, and did not overhaul and maintain the MRT-3 as contracted. Though BURI’s contract is up to Jan. 2019, the transport department fired it last Oct. By then the DOTr had paid it P650 million.

Despite the plunder rap against BURI and the contracting officials, the DOTr let the failed contractors join the biddings, Nograles says. The law debars contractors with uncompleted works from future government projects.

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After a critical second kidney transplant, dear Fatima Soriano is back to inspirational singing and prayer leadership. The wound is dry and healed; surgical stitches have been removed. Her usual bubbliness overcomes any discomfort.

Fatima received a second organ Dec. 8, Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Thank God recuperation is fast. But she needs help settling some hospital bills left behind. It being the second (the first was in 2004), the high-risk procedure necessitated preps like plasmapheresis and ATG to eliminate other antibodies. She undergoes weekly lab works and nephrology checks to monitor levels of anti-rejection meds, infection, and electrolytes.

Donations may be deposited to her account: Ma. Fatima V. Soriano, Banco de Oro-Mo. Ignacia, QC branch, No. 005630400763.

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Catch Sapol radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., DWIZ (882-AM).

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