Friday, March 07, 2008 Bacolor folks rally vs Gugu desilting
BACOLOR -- Strong rains early this week have driven scores of residents to troop to the streets last Wednesday to denounce Capitol's stoppage of desilting operations at the Gugu creek, which they said has put their properties and lives in extreme danger.
Massing up at the boundary of this town and the City of San Fernando, the group which first counted to about 200 individuals late afternoon Wednesday bloated to close to 800 warm bodies at nightfall-holding torches that illuminated a vacant lot just a stone-throw away from the busy Jose Abad Santos Avenue.
Barangay Cabetican chairman Jomar Hizon led the group, which vowed to continue its mass action until Pampanga Governor Eddie Panlilio listens to their demand to resume desilting in Gugu.
Hizon said several barangays like Talba, Tinajero and his barangay have already been put at risk when the water of Gugu wiped out the creek's embankment, flooding hundreds of farms and houses.
Last Monday night, without any hint of an impending typhoon, heavy rains poured down to the province causing water channels, including the Gugu creek to swell. This alarmed Bacolor folk, who have been traumatized by lahar.
Hizon said even that even the Don Honorio Ventura College of Arts and Trade (Dhvcat) in Barangay Cabambangan will be endangered once the creek is breached.
But even as breaching would not be the cause, heavy silt build-up on the riverbed renders the earth dikes futile against water rampaging from upstream.
Hizon said the governor should immediately direct the resumption of quarrying or desilting at the creek.
Earlier, Panlilio ordered the stoppage of desilting operations in the creek on suspicion that these were being used as fronts to commercial quarrying.
Issuance of permits of quarry operators in Gugu was also temporarily withheld pending verifications on the applications.
The operation was resumed several weeks later but was once again stopped, the residents complained.
They claimed that even the heavy equipment that work to fortify the earth dike stopped working.
In only a day's time without continuous desilting, they said, the creek would be once again silted to depths that could prove hazardous to residents, not only of Bacolor but also of nearby barangays of Minalin and City of San Fernando.
Provincial Legal Officer Maria Elissa Velez said Panlilio has issued an executive order for the desilting operations in the Gugu creek.
Velez also said eight quarry permits were also issued. (MHD/ABL)
