BACOLOR -- Belting out a portion of John Lennon's hit song "Imagine," Philippine Institute of Seismology and Volcanology (Phivolcs) Director Dr. Renato Solidum Jr. stressed on Tuesday that the time to decongest Metro Manila "is now, not tomorrow and not later" for the country's sake.
During the 48th general membership and meeting of the Pampanga Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (PamCham) at the King's Royal Promenade here, Solidum said, "I like your advocacy which is in partnership with all sectors to make Metro Manila safe for the sake of the whole country."
Solidum said that PamCham's advocacy to decongest Metro Manila now is “very relevant” considering its massive vulnerability to natural hazards like earthquakes and super typhoons.
"In what I call 'disaster imagination,' where we must anticipate the problems, we also should identify the hazards, who and which will be affected by the hazards and assess the controllable hazards by looking and learning at the past with proven scientific and engineering based interventions. We cannot control earthquakes or strength of typhoons but we can reduce vulnerability by moving people around, making fixed assets resilient and ensuring business continuity by spreading these around the countryside and other regions and treating governance as a business. As of now, Metro Manila's situation is already a nightmare in our observation," he said.
Solidum further said that the threats to Metro Manila could be taken as opportunities by Pampanga and other "less vulnerable" areas in the Philippines.
"In such scenarios that Metro Manila is hit by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake emanating from the West Valley Fault, Pampanga and other northern provinces will be less affected. Another is, if Taal Volcano erupts and spills ashes towards Metro Manila when the wind direction favors it, the first thing that will happen is air transport will be paralyzed. And when that happens, the whole country will be affected. That is why vital facilities in the National Capital Region must be protected to avert this type of scenario which we never really can predict when such will occur," he said.
In Pampanga, he emphasized, the biggest hazard is still lahar left by the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991.
"But massive lahar flow will only happen again if we experience extreme rainfall just like in the 70s. Still, it’s good that there are now interventions like the megadike. Vital facilities like Clark Air Base or any other port in the region must be kept operational. We need to make sure that risk is contained in economic planning and that governance is similarly decongested and spread out. Development plans must be taken with science-based scenarios and it must be noted that natural hazards can be mitigated. This is where Pampanga can find the opportunity to help Metro Manila to keep it safe and operational amidst the threats," Solidum added.
"But decongesting Metro Manila has to be a collective effort of all sectors starting with the government and private sector. The time to do that is now. As John Lennon said in his song Imagine, ‘You may say I’m a dreamer. But I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us. And the world will live as one,’ and safely at that," concluded Solidum. (JTD)