THE situation over at the Diversion Road remains iffy. There's still loose soil and rocks that can drop on anyone's head. Thus, expect that the road will be closed every once in a while when this happens.
rBy this time, the people residing in the southern areas of Davao City should already take this into consideration in their daily schedules as they are urged to keep an eye out on the Davao City Government and Department of Public Works and Highways Facebook pages for advisories.
As of 9 a.m., Sunday, November 5, the DPWH Facebook page says the Old Dumpsite section of the Diversion Road (C.P. Garcia Highway) is still closed to all types of vehicles. It said, "We will do our best to have the road opened by early morning tomorrow, November 6th." But, as we said, it's iffy.
Later in the afternoon, however, DPWH announced that the road will be open to light vehicles from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. while clearing operations at the landslide area will be done from 10 pm to 4 am.
"All vehicles going North are advised to take the McArthur Highway, while trucks and other heavy vehicles are advised to use the Maa Road going CP Garcia. Only light vehicles can proceed from Maa to Shrine Hills, while trucks are advised to take the Maa road going McArthur Highway," the advisory read.
Classes for the second semester is opening, and expect a major rush this morning. Expect traffic standstill as trucks will be clogging the McArthur Highway again. This will mean a lot of sacrifices and preparations. This means very early commute or motoring. But that is how it has to be, since these are unusual and unintended circumstances. Life goes on, whether you make it in time for your classes, office work, or appointments and meetings.
As we urge motorists and commuters to work around the inconvenience this has been giving the Dabawenyos, we are also asking the DPWH whether they have a true course of action aside from just flattening the mountain.
The landslide has been going on for a month now and there appears to be no engineering solutions being applied aside from earth moving, and as citizens, we cannot help but ask: Does anyone even know what is being done around here?
It's about time that DPWH lay down to the public what they are really doing to solve the problem and not continuously hide behind the excuse that another rock has fallen. The public deserves some real updates on what is being done and how it is seen to solve the problem, rather than the regular advisory on yet another fallen rock.