MANY people blamed torrential rains last Thursday and Friday for the floods and massive road congestion that left hundreds of commuters stranded or unable to leave offices for home.
Some spent Thursday night at the office and went home instead early Friday. Others spent hours on the road with no food or toilet break, and reached their homes at midnight. They cursed the heavy rains for the inconvenience and for disrupting their plans.
The downpour Thursday night was worse than Friday’s because two lives were lost in a landslide at Sitio Lower Ponce, Barangay Capitol Site, Cebu City, after soil loosened by the rain crushed houses. Six families were evacuated to the barangay hall to prevent more deaths.
While the rains get pinpointed as the cause for the flooding, traffic and the deaths, it is not the real culprit here. The fault is in our inability to act - to prevent the clogging of drainage systems, to give way to other cars so intersections do not get blocked, and to institute measures to meet the challenges of a growing metropolis.
Of course, individuals can do their part by not using plastic, not throwing garbage indiscriminately, taking care of the environment and being patient and considerate of others. But the institutional solutions are the ones that get highlighted as painfully inadequate during heavy rains.
Drainage projects, if there were any, apparently were still not enough to ensure the water will flow out to waterways. Government campaigns to contain garbage, if there were any, failed to prevent the clogging of pipes. Where are the disaster preparedness plans that are supposed to take effect not when there are calamities but, more importantly, before a disaster happens so that loss of lives and the waste of precious man- or woman-hours could be prevented?
There is also the more immediate solution that could take effect exactly when the rains pour. But in the downpour last Thursday and Friday even that response was not apparent. I’m referring to the absence of traffic enforcers or policemen who could have managed the flow of vehicles to cope with the massive congestion.
At the Ayala mall area, security guards were the ones guiding traffic although the job is primarily for traffic policemen. At intersections, like the one near the Provincial Capitol on way to Guadalupe, no guard or policeman stood in the middle to control the flow.
There are immediate solutions and long-term measures to the problems of flooding and road congestion. In last week’s events, even those immediate steps were not taken.
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A fiesta mass for the Our Lady of Peňafrancia, patroness of Bicolandia, will be held today, Sunday, at 5:30 p.m. at the Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Parish - Capitol, N. Escario St., Cebu City.
Cebuanos mark the feast of the Our Lady of Peňafrancia, fondly called “Ina” (mother), a week after the main celebration in Naga city in Bicol. This was to allow devotees the chance to join the Bicol celebration and return to Cebu for our own version.
The Bicol Association of Cebu Inc. organized fiesta activities here.