NO FLOODBUSTER, literally
– his official moniker “anti-flood tsar” of the City of San Fernando at the
time of now much missed Mayor Oscar S. Rodriguez notwithstanding – still, it’s
Engineer Marni Castro that city residents in the know have come to turn to at
every coming storm or heavy monsoon rain.
Thus, Saturday past with
Typhoon Ompong still unleashing intermittent rains, Marni it was that I texted
after a quick look-see at developing cracks on the small bridge to Phase 3 of
St. Jude Village where I am domiciled.
Marni had already assessed
the bridge situation – the northern approach had caved in, onrushing water and
mud already spilling on the flooded streets every which way, the nearby
(uninhabited?) house of Mayor Edwin Santiago unspared – by the time I returned from an errand with
the wife to a nearby drugstore I found
him coordinating immediate response on his mobile – mobilizing a backhoe and
dump trucks to take out tons of debris that impacted the bridge, sending
advisories to city officials, etc.
Affected residents and a
team from CLTV 36 were milling around Marni with myriad fearful concerns over
the situation when Mayor Santiago and VM Jimmy Lazatin arrived at the site less
than an hour later.
Quick was the mayor’s
lamentation over what he said was the “opposition” of the Phase 3 residents to
the construction of a new bridge over that same spot that should have started
in February this year, with posted notifications around the village in late
January.
(As quick was the bashing
I got from a number of the Phase 3 residents when I posted on my Facebook page
pictures of the collapsed bridge and the mayor’s lamentation. “Get your facts
right,” one said. Of course, I stuck to the facts, citing only what the mayor
articulated. That they said they did not oppose the construction was another,
if related, story. That did not detract any the facts I cited in my post.)
Anyways, the mayor
deferring to Marni’s recommendations on the immediate to-do’s about the bridge
just showed how much confidence the city government has invested in its premier
volunteer worker.
Indeed, a volunteer of the
highest order Marni makes, shooting to prominence – of the selfless kind – in
the lahar aftermath of the Mount Pinatubo eruptions.
His off-roading skills
were put to good use in rescue-relief operations at each onslaught of lahar
from Porac to Bacolor. And even broadened now: at the onset of every typhoon or
habagat, he mobilizes his off-roader
groups to be on-call for rescue operations.
He went beyond being among
the strongest advocates for the FVR megadike systems to actually monitoring –
daily – its construction from the digging stage, to the filling and the
armoring. No, his did not wangle any contract in any phase of the megadike
erection. Why, up to this time he routinely takes the megadike road just to
check its condition.
Marni was likewise among
the brain trust that birthed the San Fernando-Sto. Tomas-Minalin taildike that
helped saved the southern part of the city and the two towns from more
destructive inundations. As in the megadike, he now pushes for the taildike to
serve as a major road to from the capital city to Minalin, thereby easing
traffic at the old provincial road through Sto. Tomas.
For a number of summers
now, Marni has quietly coordinated the declogging of waterways linking San
Fernando and the two mentioned towns to immediate, though, as yet incomplete,
results – floods are much lower and subside faster in the city.
That Marni has done much
for the city – and Pampanga too – at all cost to him and no cost to the
government and the people is beyond an iota of doubt. Unreasonable, otherwise.
His mantra says it all: “I
live for a cause, not for applause.”
Come to think of it, what
has he got for it?
This then is but an
affirmation of the badge of citizenship long bestowed on Marni Castro. Can
anything be more honorable than this?
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