Friday, November 14, 2008 Limlingan: BRC and Minalin By DP Limlingan The Advocate
IT ALL started with the passage of House Bill 3380 under the able tutelage of "Dynamic Dong," the Hon. Aurelio Gonzales, Jr., unbeatable congressman of the 3rd District of Pampanga.
In a counterpart legislation, Senate Bill 2100 was enacted and this gave birth to Republic Act 9506. The latest law was signed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo last September 28, 2008 in Bacolor town. The Act created the Bacolor Rehabilitation Council (BRC).
The BRC is composed of 13 members coming from the government and from the private sector. The composition includes the provincial governor, the municipal mayor of Bacolor, the president of the Pampanga Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the regional heads of the Departments of Trade and Industry, Education, Health, Agriculture and the Public Works and Highways.
The council is chaired by the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) Region 3 Director Remigio Mercado. Boss Reggie is the right man for the right job at a right time. He has the ability to make everyone moving and has the skills in spearheading special tasks.
The creation of the BRC is highly commendable and praiseworthy. It is development oriented and a savior to Bacolor and eventually to the province. Other towns are much interested on how to tap development from BRC and how to replicate the benefits it shall bring.
The law aims to seek total rehabilitation of Bacolor town. It cannot be denied that this historic town was extremely ravaged during a number of years of wanton devastation of Mt. Pinatubo to Pampanga. At one instance, Barangay Cabalantian was totally washed out in a matter of minutes. Among the 21 municipalities of Pampanga then, Bacolor was the most devastated.
A landmark legislation of Cong. Dong, the law has sourced out a whopping P1.5-billion fund that shall be utilized for the rehabilitation measure. A total of P350 million was initially made as an initial allocation for the planning and preparation stages that includes feasibility studies.
As expected, the law is aimed at rehabilitation of distressed infrastructures, construction of "erased" road networks, declogging of silted river channels, erection of flood mitigating means and all other efforts to bring back to glory of Bacolor that was.
No doubt, Bacolor is now literally at its high elevation now as billions of tons of sand and lahar materials elevated this once capital of Pampanga and the Philippines.
But what about the adjacent towns of Bacolor in terms of the floodwaters and silt material discharges? The neighboring Minalin town is in a clear and present danger of being a dumping ground of Bacolor's waters and lahar remains.
The path of the famed Gugu river in Bacolor town is directed towards the egg-basket of Pampanga.
After constructing river dikes and enforcing Gugu's embankments to save Bacolor town, its tail end remains a threat due to its water and lahar materials it shall expectedly discharge. Minalin is endowed with income-generating fishponds aside from poultry farms
The RBC should seriously consider the inclusion of development and rehabilitation plans not only for Bacolor but for other nearby towns as well particularly on the effects of the rehabilitation. It should not make sacrificial lambs out of the total development of Bacolor. Other Pampanga towns as a matter of fact, widely welcome the rehabilitation as an access to development of the whole province.
Mayor Edgar Flores of Minalin is pro-development. As an established proof, he has transformed dikes, embankments of fishponds and river channels protections as access roads of the different barangays of his municipality. Bacolor should consider doing the same.
Road networks and accessibility are also factors for progress. One time I went to Macabebe passing through Minalin town and in no time reached the main artery leading to the former. I humbly suggest to the BRC the inclusion in its rehabilitation blueprint the creation of feeder and access roads using river embankments that may serve as ingress and exit in going in and out of Bacolor town.
The megadike road is a success in providing a road alternative accessibility and traffic congestion efforts of the government to motorists.
Flores, in his letter to the Neda requests that a representative from Minalin be included as an observer during BRC meetings. Other neighboring towns should do the same so the BRC shall be able to generate suggestions on how to tap development out of the rehabilitation of Bacolor and mitigate any adverse effects out of it, if any.
In our brief coffee dialogue, he intimated his openness and open arms policy to development. He lauded the rehabilitation of Bacolor as a sign of growth for Pampanga. He is not imposing but rather expressed in meekness that his town be considered by the BRC in its development plans.
An epitome of a righteous and genuine leader protecting and providing for the welfare of the people he took an oath to serve.
The author as a Kapampangan and once a short-lived resident of Bacolor during childhood, together with the thousands of Bacolorenos, thank Cong. Dong for his laudable legislation.
