CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – “We are both saddened and infuriated how politics have gotten in the way to resolve problems like floods.”
As though to prove his point, the sky opened up on Friday, Aug. 23, flooding parts of the city anew as Pampanga business leader Rene Romero articulated his sector’s concern over the stasis in city governance during an interview with Punto!
Romero lamented the disapproval by the sangguniang panlungsod of a P5-million allocation for clearing, desilting, and declogging of waterways in a supplemental budget requested by Mayor Vilma Balle-Calauag.
Intended as an immediate response by the city to the massive floodings in the city wrought by Typhoon Carina on July 24 and the monsoon rains on Aug. 1, the disapproved funds were intended for the flood prone areas of Café Rustico-St. Jude in Dolores, PLDT to Gulf Gasoline Station on the CSF-Lubao Road, PLDT to Lelut Baculud in Sto. Nino, 7-11 (convenience store) to Prime Water in Lourdes, and the Assumption Creek in Del Pilar.
“The recent floodings were unprecedented because our city’s canals and waterways were for long clogged and silted, with no obvious clearing effort. Now that there is [P5-million for declogging], we are dismayed to hear the city council disapproved it,” rued Romero.
“Is the council bent in keeping the city underwater after every downpour? We simply cannot understand why they disapproved the budget. We cannot believe it is for lack of funds, given the budget of the city. Why, we are even told that there are so much untapped funds,” furthered Romero.
As the interview went on, the internet came flooded with scenes of the City of San Fernando underwater, notably the portion of MacArthur Highway fronting the Mother Teresa of Calcutta Medical Center, that used to be wholly-owned by the Caluag family, and Makabali Hospital downtown.
“If I may be clear, I am not endorsing the request for supplemental budget by the Office of the Mayor. What the city needs is for our leaders to set aside politics and work together for common good like addressing flooding in the city among other issues that affect public safety and order,” clarified Romero.
The business leader could not help but remember the governance of the City of San Fernando by former mayors Oscar Rodriguez and Edwin Santiago, when the canals, creeks, and other waterways were well-maintained because the “necessary funds were readily available.”
Romero remembered, fondly, the declogging and desilting operations that started in January every year – with business group support, the dear lamented private citizen Marni Castro as focal person.
“Why, declogging and desilting then went beyond the borders of the city, downstream the rivers in Sto. Tomas and Minalin, and through the tail dike to Gugu Creek, and flooding became not only few and far between but even barely there in level,” he noted.
Romero has also taken his group’s concern over the flooding not only in the city but in the whole of Pampanga to the Department of Public Works and Highways.
In a letter to DPWH Region 3 director Roseller A. Tolentino on Aug. 19, Romero, in his capacity as Pampanga Chamber of Commerce and Industry former president and current director for infra development, called for the agency to take the initiative in developing a province-wide masterplan to effectively address floodings in Pampanga.
“To ensure a sustainable solution to the flooding challenges in our province, it is crucial that the DPWH leads the development of an integrated flood mitigation strategy encompassing both upstream and downstream areas,” said the letter.
Intramurals at city hall
It has been noted that party politics, if not vested interests, have sundered the executive-legislative relationships in the City of San Fernando. Mayor Caluag holds a minority in the city council led by Vice Mayor Benedict Jasper Lagman.
What used to be said as “mutual tolerance” has come to open animosity with the declaration by the SP of city administrator Nelson Lingat as persona non grata over what the council said “conduct unbecoming” during a committee hearing on a supplemental budget for the City College of San Fernando.
Comes this disapproval again of a supplemental budget – aside from the P5 million for declogging operations, also disapproved were P7.6 million for road networks, P1.5 million for air-conditioning equipment, and P20 million for expanded assistance to individuals in crisis situations – and it could only mean that the intramurals at city hall will even worsen.
It does not need political genius to see where these disapprovals will impact most severely, even fatally politically.
Meanwhile, former board member Mylyn Pineda-Cayabyab, once also Lubao mayor but has since transferred her voter’s residence to the city, is every which way in the barangays delivering signature Pineda Pamilya services.
