I WAS honestly tickled pink, so to speak, when I first heard of metropolization as one of the agenda of then mayoralty candidate, and now on his second term, Mayor Oscar Moreno. Metropolization is the “M” of PRIME HAT, for those not in the know. Thoughts of the growth extending beyond the political boundaries of Cagayan de Oro whereby neighboring municipalities of Misamis Oriental and Bukidnon enjoying the same urban services and facilities Kagayanons have would be every man’s dream ... or nightmare. Pink has since turned to red as the years went by and realized that beyond the big dreams and rhetoric will not only entail billions but most importantly, how small-mindedness and parochial attitude would be a huge obstacle to such a gargantuan ambition.
A couple of years ago, I asked a friend while in Singapore why there were so much diggings in the city. Apparently, he was part of the group tasked to lay the wires and other technical infrastructure such as internet and electricity for the next one thousand years. What struck me though was the fact that the existing ones which was built for 100 years has not reached its limit. I could only marvel in silence at how forward looking Singaporeans are, while we are always undoing mistakes of the past, spending more precious resources on emergency response instead of addressing the cause and planning and building for tomorrow.
How often do we hear of complaints of our rivers and creeks becoming trash bins but for decades we have yet to see these waterways cleared of illegally built structures. Those residential and commercial establishments enjoy the same privileges as those who were built according to the Building Code, whereby promoting the culture that the only standard existing and what matters is being in power and being close to the powerful. Such is the tragic message, especially to the young, when what is learned at home and school, is directly opposite of the political and administrative reality.
One builds starting with the foundation. A strong foundation, not in terms of concrete and steel, but the promotion of the values which will make a metropolitan Kagay-anon. It was the handling of Sendong which did the past administration in. Certainly not vote-buying as its a given. It was the collective anger of the middle class which turned the political landscape around. And so I wonder how safe Kagay-anons are now, as compared to 1991. We will of course credit the residents along the waterways supporting the present administration’s evacuation plan. But it stops there. The danger remains, and so with the recently built infrastructures which has contributed to more flooding.
It is said that those who fail to plan, plan to fail, and the recent flip-flopping statement of the City Engineer on a drainage master plan worries me no end. The multi-storey buildings which are now sprouting like mushrooms are nice. But who is thinking of the absorptive capacity of a single storey to a condominium in terms of waste water and parking space. Urbanization is inevitable but it does not guarantee the quality of our lives. Fact is, life has become even more difficult to enjoy the perks of modernization, spending hours to get to work or shops, that walking cannot even be considered as pedestrians have to contend with limited sidewalks and motorists using our precious road space as personal property.
I would imagine a sales mission to promote CDO as a business and investment hub with not only demographics but more so with the absorptive capacity of our city, where the population doubles in the daytime. We see our old quarter giving way to towers of glass and concrete, but are we thinking of what will happen if everyone will flush the toilets at the same time? Or are we just going to look the other way and hoping that eventually, everything will seep back sideways and downwards over time. But then again, the foul smell of the stench remains.