THE city mayor of Bacolod welcomed the initiative of an anti-flooding group to engage in a dialogue with the city and the department of public works and highways in finding solutions to flooding in the city.
But he cautioned though that if the intent is to find fault, he will not hesitate to call it off.
“If the intention of the Bacolod Anti-Baha Alliance is to help us, they are very, very welcome, but if they there for faultfinding or whatever, so it’s another story,” Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia said Monday, August 13.
On Sunday, August 12, the Anti-Baha Alliance led by Jean Trebol, held talks with City Administrator John Orola and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) at the Planta Centro Hotel.
Leonardia said that he is reserving his comments in the meantime considering that some of the members of the group were the same people who were very noisy and complaining about floods during his term, but during the three years of Monico Puentevella as the mayor, they were silent.
“Now that I am back as mayor, they’re back on what they are doing,” he said.
The group had earlier asked the City Government the cause of the recent floods in Bacolod which they considered as another wake-up call for the city officials.
“We believe that we have done a lot to address the flood problems like the drainage projects,” Leonardia said.
He said the study for the comprehensive drainage master plan for Bacolod is now ongoing.
Leonardia noted that the flood will really depend on the volume of the rain and the recent flood was caused by an extraordinary rainfall.
“While we will do everything we can, we cannot assure everybody if the volume of rain is beyond the capacity of the drainage system like what happened on August 2,” the mayor said.
Last week, some cities outside Bacolod were also hit by floods.
Leonardia said this is a natural occurrence because of the climate change, but they are also working to address this problem.
With the drainage master plan, the mayor is hopeful that major improvements will happen and the major drainage project in Lacson Street will also help.
Trebol had earlier said they are not here to point fingers on anybody. (MAP/SunStar Bacolod)