Of being part of a problem

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO
March Fianza

BAGUIO CITY -- Nothing is new. As a young boy who grew up in this city, I have been aware that houses within the city camp lagoon get flooded every year and that relief goods are familiar features of the whole scene.

There are times when I ask myself if the residents here calculatedly wait for the calamity months to come and even pray for strong rains. Today, you open your TV and news coupled with video footages announce that the Baguio city camp lagoon is again flooded.

And every time that happens, school children have to stop their classes to give way to hundreds of families that will again be relocated in school classrooms that are converted to evacuation centers.

The affected barangays in the perennial flooding are Lower City Camp, portions of MRR Queen of Peace, City Camp Proper and adjacent barangays.

This has been the topic in hundreds of opinion columns and editorials, and thousands of news articles that found print in local and national papers since I can remember when. Yet nothing seemed to budge.

I can recall first-hand stories from friends and relatives who have stayed there as transient residents admitting that they too had their share of relief goods. They got used to it until they finished college and left the community.

I have friends and relatives who were born there who have no plans of leaving their houses permanently because they grew up in that community and that is where life belongs.

Aside from the annual internal revenue allotment and government funding for various projects, government has lost count on how many millions of pesos for rescue operations, relief food and clothing have been poured into the lagoon barangays.

Public officials have sufficient knowledge about the situation but have chosen to just keep quiet about it since the floods have become a part of the lagoon – anyway, the calamities come only once a year and they bring ‘life’ to politicians.

Things started to look brighter for the squatters there when occupancy in City Camp was legitimized under Proclamation No. 232 issued by then President Ferdinand Marcos in 1968.

With that, we learned to live with the fact that in Baguio, illegal squatters that are now described by a present-day politician as “informal settlers” are legitimized as long as it brings benefits to the sponsor.

Under the proclamation, more than 30,000 square meters in the city camp lagoon became alienable and disposable to private individuals who were awarded their occupied lots through Townsite Sale Applications.

Aside from City Camp, the proclamation included the sale and awarding of TSA lots at Quirino Hill, Hillside and Pinsao Pilot Project.

The proclamation that could not have been issued by Marcos – if not for the recommendation of local politicians, was over exploited. Look at what these areas have become.

If only the city strictly limited each TSA to cover 250 sq.m., the lagoon barangays could be looking very neat today. But in the city of Baguio, TSA lots are the politicians’ instruments to power that is why we see houses being built on five meters by five meters (25 sq. m.), or smaller.

Looking from above the lagoon at Bryan Aliping’s mansion, the area that gets flooded exceeds the original 30,500 sq. m. that was specified in the proclamation. My friend from the DENR estimates that the flooded area is around five hectares.

Admittedly, he said the perennial flooding became worse when the number of actual occupants multiplied. The increase in the volume of garbage in addition to earth-moving activities during the construction of houses combined, clogged the natural drainage hole in the lagoon.

It makes us wonder why local politicians in collaboration with environment officials recommended that city camp lagoon be disposed to the landless when they knew that the former swamp was where water drained to Crystal Cave before it flowed to Asin River.

The flooding problem has become uncontrollable now as compared to the 70s when the number of households could have been limited by stopping new construction.

But what can stop “tolerated invasion” and construction of new houses when the money from the sale of real property is gainful income for an LGU or other people’s pockets?

On the other hand and admittedly too, residents feel the “heat” especially when their community becomes the subject of news items. In fact, a barangay official I talked to said his constituents now understand that one day they will have to give way to proposals that may be solutions to the flooding problem.

He said they were innocent kids who swam in the lagoon but have grown up to be responsible citizens who no longer want to experience the flood, the damages and the wrong impression that they are happy whenever typhoons come because of relief goods.

Secretary Rogelio Singson of the DPWH said in his Baguio day speech that he wants permanent solutions to the perennial flooding at the City Camp lagoon and government officials should come up with a permanent answer to the problem.

When he spoke on Baguio day, I had the feeling he knew that the lagoon residents who are directly affected by the floods hope to see a solution and that they no longer want to be part of the problem. I wonder if our officials feel the same way.

The residents at Little Kibungan, Puguis, La Trinidad and the officials who tolerated their occupancy of the landslide area should pick up from the city camp lagoon experience.

They should start looking for permanent relocation areas where they can start anew, instead of waiting for the government to relocate them. They should now start abandoning the tents issued to them since the killer landslide a year ago.

Forgive me but it has been noticed that many of the tents were found to be empty of household things and unoccupied in most of the nights, with only a few individuals guarding them. But there are people in the day time.

What does this mean? It simply points out the fact that the supposed tent occupants have someplace to sleep at night and come back around the tents at daytime. When will they stop being part of the problem? Or will they? – marchfianza777@yahoo.com