The cat is out of the bag, so to speak. And those who have known all along but didn’t have the guts to say it out in the open can finally do so without fear of repercussion. The fact that it took a flash flood to kill more than 150 Cebuanos is what makes it so tragic.
But at least there’s the acknowledgement and the begrudging acceptance that living along the riverbanks or any waterway can be fatal. And affected residents know that they are playing a dangerous game of Russian roulette whenever there’s a heavy downpour.
But pointing out the obvious hasn’t always been easy since it hasn’t always been obvious.
Take for instance the residents of Villa del Rio in Barangay Bacayan. Many of them have lived in that subdivision for more than two decades and yet, what happened last Nov. 4 was the first time that river water inundated and later submerged their homes.
Some lost all of their worldly possessions, but compared to those who lost family members, they could count themselves lucky.
The big question is what happens to them now and to the others who are in a similar fix.
Others may be able to afford to up and move, but what about those living on a fixed income. The devastation was so overwhelming that it set many back to square one. What of them?
Local governments in Cebu have to think outside the box to address the problem because all of the stop-gap solutions in the past have proven to be useless.
Some could say that what happened last Nov. 4, when typhoon Tino dumped a month and a half’s worth of rain on Metro Cebu in a day, was a fluke.
But in 2023, a University of the Philippines – Diliman College of Science’s Institute of Environmental Science and Meteorology study warned that the country should brace “for potentially stronger and more destructive typhoons due to climate change.”
Danilo Jaque, a hydrologist of Hydronet Consultants Inc., urged the national and local governments to combine structural engineering works with nature-based interventions such as reforestation and the establishment of buffer zones and retention basins to avoid another Tino tragedy.
Speaking during the Water Secure PH Forum on Thursday, Nov. 27, 2025, Jaque said “structural fixes will keep falling short unless matched with upstream ecological restoration and interventions.”
The local governments of Cebu have heard it straight from the horse’s mouth. They have been given the blueprint to try and repair the damage. They don’t have to conduct expensive feasibility studies anymore. The answers are right in front of them. And the public knows that there’s a way to mitigate the problem. They can hold accountable officials who ignore the advice and the suggestions in the next elections.
With that said, the public must also bear in mind that some of them will be affected when these projects are implemented. If that’s the case, then they must cooperate with authorities. After all, it’s not only their lives that are on the line. It’s everyone’s.
Department of Science and Technology 7 Director Tristan Abando, in the same forum organized by his department in partnership with Hydronet and the Asian Institute of Technology Thailand, noted that the current approach “focuses heavily on downstream drainage upgrades without correcting upstream issues like the absence of catchment basins and poor river management.”
He pointed out that water systems and watersheds “do not follow political boundaries.” So “an upgrade in one city, for instance, may simply push the flood problem onto its neighbor.”
Under these circumstances, the local governments of Metro Cebu have no choice but to work among themselves to address the problem. The alternative is a repeat of Nov. 4. And I don’t think the Cebuano public will take it sitting down.
The time for finger-pointing is long past; the time for decisive, collaborative action is upon us. Cebu’s leaders now hold the key to moving beyond outdated, siloed thinking and finally implementing the integrated, upstream solutions experts have provided. To delay this essential, life-saving work — to wait for the next flash flood to confirm their inaction — is not merely bureaucratic failure; it is a profound moral abdication. The public has been warned, the blueprint is on the table, and the next steps are agonizingly clear. The difference between survival and tragedy now hinges entirely on whether our officials choose to heed these warnings or simply wait for the waters to rise again.