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Thursday, March 24, 2005
Wenceslao: Watershed and other thoughts
By Bong O. Wenceslao
You travel via the transcentral highway and you are blind if you fail to see the continuing danger posed on Cebu’s most important watershed area. With the concrete and extravagant structures sprouting there, one wonders how long entities protecting this supposedly protected area can hold off the blight of urban living surely creeping inwards.
Going to Tabunan, then Manunggal and back to the city using the well-kept road that traversed the mountain’s peak to where it linked up with the transcentral highway at Kuros-kuros, I noted that the only way this gift of God can be protected well is to have sincere government officials. But in our setup, these officials don’t come often.
While the rain threatened to pour when we were in Manunggal last March 19-20, it did not. Which reminded me of the browning of the hill near our house in Minglanilla. The onset of summer, or is it the El Niño, is threatening the mountain farmers again. And it looks like nothing has been done as yet to prepare them for such an eventuality.
Manunggal has not changed much since last year, but the road that breaks off from the transcentral highway in Kuros-kuros towards the peak has improved, cemented in stretches where landslides would have broken it. That means accessibility is now even better, the reason why Cebu City Councilor Nestor Archival built a hut in Manunggal.
With better accessibility comes the need to ensure that the area’s eco-tourism potential will be protected. In this, Balamban Mayor Alex Binghay may have a partner in his councilor, Dave Karamihan. I met the young man at the campsite and found him to be aggressive and full of ideas—surely, he can invigorate efforts to develop Manunggal.
Karamihan, while an independent in the Council, is with Mayor Binghay and the majority in that legislative body who are opposing the bill filed by Rep. Antonio Yapha to transform the third district where Balamban belongs into a province called Occidental Cebu. Balamban is a big town and its opposition is a blow to Yapha’s provincial dream.
HOLY WEEK. Sun.Star won’t have an issue tomorrow, Good Friday, and the next day, Black Saturday, because it’s staff will go on a needed respite for the Holy Week. I therefore would like to use this opportunity to ask Christians to use the break for reflection and not for wild escapades. We need it in this increasingly chaotic world.
TEXTREAX. From Councilor Karamihan: “Read your article. We’ll make sure Balamban gets to (organize) the (Manunggal climb) next year. We’ll do it better and livelier. I just hope the Pacquiao-Morales rematch won’t happen around that time.”
khanwens(at)yahoo(dot)com/ 0927-2055064)
(March 24, 2005 issue)
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