Almeria town mayor attends climate change workshop

ORMOC CITY, Philippines  – Re-electionist Mayor Dominador Agajon of Almeria town of Biliran province had to postpone until yesterday his filing of certificate of candidacy by first attending the three-day disaster contingency planning workshop held in this city since Monday by the United Nations Development Programme.

Agajon confided to The Freeman the importance of the UNDP activity in relation to the perennial flooding of Almeria, a 5th class municipality, which is now still troubled by flood-related problems despite the anti-flooding infrastructure set-up in this town.

“We have been experiencing flooding in the town proper and five of those were devastating, so to have an additional knowledge in handling crisis is always important so the government can serve the people best,” he said.

On February 2001, three-feet deep flashfloods hit the Poblacion, along the streets of Del Baño, Consolacion and San Roque.

The stalls or “sari-sari stores” put-up along the streets during the fiesta were destroyed and their goods washed away. Some houses and even the privately constructed river control infrastructure were damaged, the mayor said.

The recent flashfloods that hit Poblacion was during typhoon Henry, but the biggest flood that hit the town experienced was on July 20 last year when rain accumulation reached 213mm, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., even without storm signal at the time.

The two major waterways, Bagongbong and Badiang Rivers, also registered a rise in water level to about two meters from its normal level in the town, causing many losses to dwellings, crops, properties and rice fields. The floods prompted the local government to evacuate residents near the rivers and the suspension of classes on the days that followed, Agajon recalled.

The mayor clarified that there was no politics in his decision to bring with him 48 men from his town for the workshop in Ormoc. “Joining the fight against climate change is more important for the people of Almeria,” he said, after which he filed his COC yesterday.

“With me in this workshop were 48 people, consisting of four councilors, department heads, barangay officials, officials of the DILG, the police, the fire department and the DepEd, a priest of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (Aglipay), a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer, and Disaster Risk Reduction Management personnel, among other volunteers,” Agajon added.

The towns of Naval and Almeria were the last batch of eight LGUs of Biliran province to undergo the UNDP workshop.  (FREEMAN)