A group of Bacoleños is set to hold a caravan and rally tomorrow to get officials “to act and stop the flooding” in Bacolod City .

“While we are willing to do all we can to help find a definitive solution to our flooding problem, we can no longer wait, nor further endure this clear and present danger to our safety, our health, our livelihood and our very lives…we have waited too long,” a Bacolod Anti-Baha Alliance manifesto circulating through e-mail said yesterday.

The group said it will hold to account those who are officially liable for such responsibility.

A text message being passed around yesterday by BAHA said a caravan will start at the Capitol Lagoon Park at 2 p.m. tomorrow and participants are being urged to come in blue or black attires.

BAHA said it is calling on all citizens who are similarly aggrieved and endangered to unite and join them.

The caravan will drive through the flood prone areas of the city and end at the Bacolod City Hall where participants will present their manifesto to the Bacolod Sangguniang and Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia.

Leonardia yesterday said he acknowledges and welcomes the concern of the BAHA members and assures that the city has been taking pro-active measures, including dredging of the Banago river, starting two months ago without media fanfare.

The dredging was stalled because of the existence of 26 houses that will have to be cleared, Jose Ma. Vargas, executive assistant for disaster management, said yesterday.

The area in Banago being cleared is what is causing the flooding at Purok Riverside and San Clara Subdivision, and this will be continued, Vargas said.

Leonardia said he is inviting BAHA to join the newly created Bacolod City Flood Control Coordinating Action Team tasked to act on the flooding problem, because the flood problem is everybody's concern and the more people helping the better.

He assured that the team will take action against flooding.

In order that the city can address the flood problem, he said that on Saturday, the Bacolod Sanggunian, on his request, declared as nuisance all structures along rivers and creeks in the city to allow demolition without any court action.

Leonardia also pointed out that P10 million has been allocated by the city for the dredging of the Mandalagan River and the creaks of Banago and Bata.

The clearing of clogged drainage along Lacson Street is the responsibility of the Department of Public Works and Highways since it is a national road, but the city will also work on addressing the problem there, he said.

Clearing of clogged waterways is also a DPWH job but we are acting on it to mitigate the problem, he added.

We are calling on Bacoleños to properly dispose of their garbage to prevent the clogging of drainage systems and calling on barangay officials to help in this effort, he said.

He said he is tapping the help of Bayani Fernando in the city's flood control efforts and the Philippine Institute of Civil Engineers is volunteering its services.

The BAHA members in a manifesto set to be released said they have “patiently borne and carried through the years the havoc wrought upon our lives by the flooding in the city, where even the shortest heavy rains or the rising of the tide results in the inundation of entire sections of the city: stalling vehicles, destroying homes and dwellings, dislocating families, destroying properties, spreading disease and filth: in short… endangering our very lives.”

They said they patiently sought audience with and implored government officials and agencies to seek expeditious solutions to the flooding problem, and offered their assistance, and have seen the slow and painstaking process by which government has responded to their plight and call for action.

“The waiting has been too long, the city's severe flooding problem is the result of our government's long-standing inaction and negligence to implement a comprehensive flood control program with provisions for sufficient drainage systems, clearing our waterways of illegal structures by relocating dwellings built thereon, periodic dredging of known choke points, and serious enforcement of environmental and solid waste management laws,” the manifesto said.

There also appears to be a culture of passing the buck and blame-shifting between our local government officials and the national agencies, such that nothing of significance has been accomplished, the manifesto said.

The BAHA members said they are now set to confront the problem head-on, and will not longer tolerate blame-shifting, political posturing or token actions that they called cosmetic activities that neither prevent nor abate flooding.*CPG

back to top