UNTIL the June 21, 2008 flood, Westwoods Subdivision in barangay Dungon-C, Mandurriao, had been heavily advertised as flood-free. It took typhoon Frank to disprove the claim, Westwoods being one of the worst hit with as high as seven feet of muddy water.

If it was a revenge of nature, it’s a pity the whole of Iloilo City had to suffer.

Remember when, during the construction of Westwoods, Kagawad Perla Zulueta lashed out at developer Henber Realty Corporation for reclaiming that portion of the creek straddling barangays Dungon-B and Dungon-C? She warned that the bottleneck could impede the flow of water and cause flood. If I remember right, the developer had left only a waterway clearance of ten meters out of what used to be a sixty-meter-wide creek.

Today, the residents of Westwoods themselves blame the developer Henber – allegedly a partnership between Henry Chusuey and Bernan Certeza — for not heeding the call of Kagawad Zulueta to restore the creek.

Last Saturday, live on the Aksyon Radyo program The Daily Guardian on Air, we asked Mayor Jerry Treñas to comment on the Henber matter. He could only say that it is one of the problems being addressed by the on-going flood control project of the national government. Knowing that the mayor is a friend of Chusuey, we asked no further.

No wonder the mayor tossed the blame on illegal logging as the culprit, citing the Panay-wide scope of the flood.

Be that as it may, illegal logging does not absolve the Chinese friends of the mayor for illegal reclamation of the waterways. For had the Iloilo River and the creeks not been reclaimed – who knows? – the flood might not have been so severe.

***

The mayor, who was in Morocco when typhoon Frank unleashed the destructive flood, confessed that he himself had felt helpless on knowing that his three children had not moved out of their bungalow when seven feet of floodwater rushed in.

“The news I got,” he said, “was that the dump truck sent to rescue them could not possibly force its way through the raging floodwater.”

We did not ask the mayor to confirm an earlier statement attributed to Raul Gonzalez, Sr. – that the Treñas children had stayed on the rooftop, like many other victims, during the flood. That would be like asking him to lie to confirm another person’s lie.

At least, the elder Raul, whose son Cong. Raul, Jr. could be defending his House seat against Treñas in 2010, had delivered a strong message: Certain government officials are above the law of man, but not above the law of nature.

***

While riding a taxi, I asked the driver why there seemed to be less cabs moving around the city, adding that the long queue of taxis at the mall exits had been replaced by the long queue of waiting passengers.

“I guess half of all units in Iloilo,” the driver replied, “are flood victims, still undergoing repair.”

He cited a big taxi company based in Tabuc Suba as the hardest hit, considering that a substantial number of its units are new.

I thought of the taxi drivers that had been displaced but ended up asking, “How did the flood affect you?”

“Well, to be honest,” he answered, “with less competitors on the road, “I pick up more passengers now than before the flood. No need to wait for passengers in front of malls, hotels, motels and restaurants. That should make up for higher gas prices.”

In that light, for the drivers’ sake we would like to beg of LTFRB Regional Director Perry Clavel to freeze the expansion of the taxi business. By his own admission, there are already 1,300 LTFRB-registered taxi units in Iloilo.

Well, the saying “The more, the merrier” is not always true.

***

A TV news report yesterday screamed the headline, “Malacañang doing everything to cushion oil price hike.”

The body of the report, however, sounded contradictory, with presidential spokesperson Lorelei Fajardo saying that international market forces are beyond the President’s control.

That’s a half-truth; the other half is that the oil companies are not in control of the government-imposed 12% EVAT on oil. The higher the oil prices shoot up, the higher the corresponding EVAT.

2 Responses to “What, or who, caused the flood?”

• 1
  richard harris
  August 7th, 2008 13:25

  i am a resident of westwoods subdivision for over two years now and the flood being tragic as it was was not entirely the fault of the developers. the bottle neck of the river is caused mainly by sqaters (one i belieive is even an employee of the denr) who even planted trees along the river bed. i know this because my house is across the crek form these squatters.

  the only reason why your local councillor made a big issue out of it is because squatters carry more votes than the developers. another sad fact in this beautiful country that i learned to love. so Herbert, get your facts right
• 2
  anna marie dayog
  August 18th, 2008 20:41

  i agree very much with the previous comment: read the papers and GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT. the department of environment and natural resources, via a joint survey conducted by the land management bureau, has already released its report citing the squatters across dungon creek - and NOT henber - as the cause of the narrowing waterway. henber simply filled up part of its property as per its title and an approved plan dating back to 1909, citing that the dredging of dugnon creek and man-made structures across the same as the cause of its movement. i know this because i cross the bridge of westwoods everyday, and there is even a squatter occupying about half of the bottom of the bridge.

  i am a resident of westwoods now, and i am disappointed that the floods reached us. but how can we blame the developer when other previously flood-free places were flooded as well?

  for you to blame the flooding on westwoods is - honestly - stupid. westwoods covers an area of just 50 hectares. just how did this subdivision cause flooding in pavia? even if henber did plug up dungon creek (which it didn’t), how will that affect pavia, alimodian or sta barbara? they don’t even share the same waterway outflows! tigum river to ya ila sa pavia kag alimodian ya. how could westwoods have caused flooding in cubay, tabuc suba or balabago when these districts are downstream and on the other side of the salog river?

  please! use the gray matter between your ears! don’t be STUPID! basi sa sunod ma siling ka nagbaha sa aklan tungod sang westwoods gihapon. it’s just simple math, herbert: of all the millions of tons of water that inundated the province of iloilo, you think that a small CREEK barely twenty meters wide could have actually made a difference? bisan tigum gani nga daw kilometro ka lapad indi ka sarang, dungon pa nga CREEKTHINK!!! THINK REALLY, REALLY HARD! pull out a calculator or something.

  as for perla zulueta, she too was clearly uninformed. the very fact that she brought tv crews to the hearing about westwoods back in 2005 and got all dramatic just goes to show she was doing nothing more than casting for votes.

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