I PRAISED several days ago the dynamism of the City of Naga’s leaders. Who would have thought that a tragedy would challenge the substance of what I wrote?
A landslide hit a small community in Barangay Tinaan early yesterday morning. When I wrote this, rescuers were still trying to dig for the buried who might still be alive or their corpses if they were already dead. There were those who evaded the soil and rocks that slid on an estimated 15-20 houses, but they were few.
Around seven years of living in the mountains when I was younger has told me how risky some areas are with continuous rain. The shape of Cebu’s mountains, its soil composition and deforestation have upped the danger levels. This is partly the reason why the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has found difficulty maintaining mountain routes like the Cebu Transcentral Highway and Manipis Road.
This is particularly true in Naga where some of the big cement firms are located and where quarry sites dot the landscape. It would be wrong to come up with conclusions this early on the landslide but it would be interesting to find out whether the operation of the mines was a factor in the tragedy. Surely, the rains could have been a factor, too.
One thing I learned in my stay in the mountains of Cebu is that you disturb the setup there at your own risk. You dig into some areas and disturb the balance and soil and rocks could come rolling into you. This is why you don’t usually find the farmers building their homes at the foot of steep slopes. They are built high up the slopes instead.
How would the city’s mayor, Kristine Vanessa Chiong, respond to this tragedy? For a while, she has focused on the city proper, constructing a baywalk on the reclaimed shore and seeking funding for the renovation of the town plaza (with the help of businessman-designer Kenneth Cobonpue). Now she will have to focus on assessing the hazards in the city’s upland areas.
The mayor is young and her actions so far reflect that youth. The planned plaza renovation is a jab at modernity as far as the design is concerned. I hope she would be as dynamic in her disaster risk reduction efforts by fully using available advanced data as guide. She can get this from a number of sources: the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) and Project NOAH (Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards), for example, aside from Pagasa.
Interestingly, the forum the other day that was part of the activities of Cebu Press Freedom Week also acquainted me with what I consider Project NOAH’s better funded and better equipped counterpart, Weather Solutions founded by the Aboitiz Group. If Chiong could seek the help of Cobonpue, she also can talk with Weather Solutions people on improving the town’s disaster risk reduction efforts.
Local government executives should stop using “oido” as far as disaster preparedness is concerned. Advances in technology has made it possible to assess risks better and predict tragedies like landslides before they happen. It’s just a matter of incorporating these in disaster preparedness and other aspects of governance.