Showcasing successful flood control
Iloilo City takes a bow.
While all eyes were on Cebu and what went wrong in the aftermath of Typhoon “Tino” and Supertyphoon “Uwan,” this cruel month of November (not to mention the earthquake weeks before), Iloilo City’s flood control system was slowly taking center stage.
It has long been known on social and mainstream media as a magnet for tourism because of the riverside esplanade, the longest in the Philippines, at almost 10 kilometers, with the eye-popping view of the meandering river below and the intentionally lush greenery on the riverbanks. Drone videos show how beautifully landscaped it is, indeed, but its main purpose has been somewhat overlooked: to prevent flooding in the city. Only when the recent natural disasters struck with ferocious strength and fury did people see why that whole landscaped system was constructed in the first place. But the name Iloilo River Esplanade has stuck.
If I use the word “landscaped,” it is because my imagination always reminds me you have put in so much money and effort to make it work, you might as well also make it stand out and be beautiful. See, as a writer, I also judge a book by its cover and design. It cannot be all prose written beautifully. The book has to be pleasant to the eyes while being held in one’s hands. But that is me.
In recent days, a number of Facebook pages have been featuring the Iloilo flood control system, called by so many names, but this time no longer simply as “The Esplanade” but as a showcase of how flood control is made to work. An esplanade (esplanada in Spanish) is an open space, usually next to a body of water, where people can leisurely walk or drive.
Yesterday, I found even more of Iloilo City’s jewel on social media. Already, I read some cautionary remarks saying that Ilonggos shouldn’t push it too much at the expense of Cebu, whose population has suffered so much. Indeed, a lot has been said about Cebu’s urban planning and handling of the environment, especially the uphill that caused floodwaters to drain down to the plains. The typhoon winds and rain did level homes and farms, claimed lives, and wrecked livelihoods, but the waters cascading downhill are another story that speaks of something else. The blame game cannot be avoided. Now is the time for the experts to show the whys.
I do not really sense gloating or tasteless pagyayabang among the Ilonggos, but more of a simple sense of pride. Pride of place, it could be called. I would not discount faultfinders of good standing later pointing out kinks and cracks in the project’s implementation, but, for now, it is working. A national project with the Japan International Cooperation Agency, the Iloilo River project had been in the pipeline since the time of former President Cory Aquino, but it was implemented much later and completed only in 2011 during the term of then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and City Mayor Jerry Trenas. The linear park on both sides of the river was designed by landscape architect Paul Alcazaren, founder of PGAA Creative Design. Iloilo-born former Sen. Franklin Drilon, who was also involved in the project, quoted a popular saying, “Success has many fathers…” But yes, te, matahum gid man.
Flood control projects that are working should be showcased. Or are there not many or none besides Iloilo’s? Hundreds of projects (dikes, bridges, farm-to-market roads, flood control) that cost billions have been found to be substandard, unfinished, or missing, prompting some involved to flee or to confess. One day, they exploded in our faces. Investigations by the Senate and the Independent Commission on Infrastructure continue, and more massive protest rallies are expected nationwide, while Department of Public Works and Highways Secretary Vince Dizon has promised that a number of scoundrels and scalawags will spend Christmas behind bars.
But please let us know about successful and working flood control projects to copy, if there are any out there. Wala na ba? That does not mean gloating, chest-thumping, or politicizing. I go with the biblical exhortation, from Jesus himself, that goes: “No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light.” Didn’t he say that good news must be shouted from the housetops?
Those who do good should not be overly modest, while the corrupt strut about with their heads held high. I apply the same in journalism. We must wear our badge of integrity, fiercely if need be. Nothing pharisaical about that. Therefore, to showcase something good that works effectively and beautifully should not be seen as overly prideful or off-putting.
During these times when we are deluged with news of many things broken or stolen, and of lives taken, we long for signs of hope and concrete acts of goodness. But, again, as I always say, justice must be done though the heavens fall. No mercy for the corrupt, until…
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