Whatever happened to Sagip-Ilog?

 STRETCHES OF the Olongapo-Gapan Road or Jose Abad Santos Avenue turned into veritable seas, the floodwaters – in some ironical sense – concentrated in front of the showrooms of Ford, Mitsubishi, and BMW…

The OG-MacArthur Highway junction was likewise inundated, knee-deep waters lapping at the entrances of Hyundai and Jollibee.

Lazatin Boulevard was impassable to cars for a long while, notwithstanding its waters drained to St. Jude Village…already deep in flood from the overflowing creek bounding the west side of the subdivision.

Also impassable to cars was the Sto. Nino end of Lazatin Blvd., but a pissing distance from Heroes Hall.

Floodwaters reportedly reached waist-level in Barangays San Jose, Del Pilar, Sta. Lucia and Sto. Nino. Also inundated was Barangays San Nicolas…

The floods last Saturday were a perfect reprise of the above account from our post here of June 30, 2011 titled All wet written in the aftermath of tropical depression Falcon that hit us June 25, 2011.

Our piece made the perfect foil to Sun-Star Pampanga’s banner story of June 22, 2011, Mayor: No massive flooding in city in the wake of tropical depression Egay. 

"There are no floodings. Okay naman. So far so good. Unlike before when the situation is like this ay lubog na ang maraming lugar (some areas are submerged). Nakatulong ng malaki ang preparasyon namin at iyung Sagip Ilog (Our preparations have helped and our Sagip Ilog program)." So was quoted the Honorable Oscar S. Rodriguez, detailing the “preparations” as the clean-up of canals and drainage systems and citing Sagip-Ilog “whose first phase is 98 percent complete,” that contributed much in flood prevention.

In that same hallelujah story of Rodriguez, the Pampanga Chamber of Commerce and Industry “lauded the Department of Public Works and Highways for its flood mitigation projects that were put to test by Tropical Depression Egay” and “credited the P700-million Sagip Ilog Project of the City Government and the massive canalization works done by the DPWH along the stretch of MacArthur Highway in the city.”

Noted the story further: "The canalization works were part of the DPWH road widening project along MacArthur Highway that included the removal of old acacia trees that were affected by the road widening.” In effect justifying the so-called “massacre” of the trees.

Building frenzy

Notwithstanding the lie Falcon made out of Rodriguez and PamCham’s post-Egay declaration, the Sagip-Ilog project made the recurring refrain of the Rodriguez administration as the final solution to the floodings in the city.

Thus, our piece here of April 9, 2012 titled Building frenzy:

YES. THE city government is going full blast as to these much-needed infrastructure projects. It’s a long list actually where we hope Fernandinos will eventually be the beneficiaries thereafter as the projects are realized.”

So affirmed City of San Fernando Mayor Oscar S. Rodriguez of the infrastructure boom in the capital. As reported in Sun-Star Pampanga.

Getting the lion share of the amount is the Sagip-Ilog Project, nearing completion – at last, at last, at long last! – at a cost of P700 million, with P100 million as the city’s counterpart.

Complementary to the river-saving project is the rehabilitation of Balimbing Creek at the cost of some P60 million.

A thoroughly flood-free city is the end in-view of the above cited projects. So we have heard, ad nauseam, from the city government…

Exited Rodriguez. Entered Mayor Edwin Santiago. And nothing more was heard of Sagip-Ilog.

The breadth and depth of the inundation that hit the city last Saturday draw an instant judgment of Sagip-Ilog as a monumental failure. But, no, Santiago would have none of this, not even any passing mention of his predecessor’s pet anti-flooding project.

He would rather go the rigmarole of climate change, heavy volume of rain water, heavier volume of garbage and derby that “jammed the city's major water channels which obstructed the supposed swift flow of floodwaters which engulfed most major roads and almost the entirety of the city.”

No, Santiago did not say anything of the silt that has long veritably buried all of the city’s creeks rendering them useless as water channels.

No, he did not see that the floodwaters were deepest where the DPWH built and is still building the drainage canals, one right in front of Heroes Hall.         

Yes, to be fair, Santiago “activated the city emergency operations centers to provide immediate response to affected communities and avoid untoward incidents.”

Whatever, it is incumbent upon the Santiago administration to make an account of Sagip-Ilog. Absent its delivery on its very promise of a “flood-free city” vis-à-vis its sheer cost of P700 million makes the imperative of a thorough, transparent investigation of all those involved in its implementation.

Damn contractors

And while at it, while not probe too all the flood control projects undertaken by the Mt. Pinatubo Engineering-Project Management Office of the DPWH.

Again, we reference another piece, Damn contractors, published here August 9, 2010, to wit:

…(PamCham), led by its stalwarts Levy Laus and Rene Romero, is calling – short of the constructor’s head – for stiff sanctions against R.D. Policarpio Construction for virtually sleeping on the job as it accomplished but half of what it was supposed to finish by now.

The P169-million flood control project at the San Fernando River, dubbed as Sagip Ilog by the city administration, covers rehabilitating some 5.26 kilometers of the San Fernando River so as to allow the freer flow of floodwaters out of the city.

Philip Menez, project director for the flood control projects being undertaken by the Mt. Pinatubo Engineering-Project Management Office of the DPWH, revealed in a talk with the PamCham attended by Gov. Lilia “Nanay Baby” Pineda that R.D. Policarpio was the only “problematic contractor” assigned to project packages relative to the P4.6-billion flood-mitigating program for Pampanga.

Menez said that China Water International Corp. is on schedule in its work at the Porac-Gumain River diversion channel (P1.5 billion), the Tokwing Joint Venture in the construction of outlets and bridges at the San Fernando River (P491 million), and LRT Construction in flood mitigation works in Guagua town (P183 million). Most of the projects are funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

The failure of R.D. Policarpio to finish its job has raised the spectre of greater flooding in the city, a reality all too real to the Fernandinos, especially to the city’s flood czar, Engr. Marnie Castro, who advocated that aside from sanctions, the construction company be held liable and accountable for any losses flooding would cause in the city.

Flooding is a serious matter of death and destruction, those tasked – and paid – to stem it and fail should be made to pay for their shortcomings.

Indeed.