SECRETARY Roy Cimatu of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) could not keep his hands off the problem anymore. And so he called the mayors of all 18 municipalities of Antique for a conference on a widespread problem afflicting its rivers – siltation that has resulted in the flooding of certain barangays. The only way the rivers could be rehabilitated is through dredging.
Only one mayor, Francisco “Bebong” Baladjay, Jr. of Laua-an rose to say that his Sangguniang Bayan (SB) had already passed a resolution calling for the immediate rehabilitation of its river system. In fact, the municipal government had already inked a memorandum of agreement with the DENR, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to collaborate in the rehabilitation that would address the siltation problem.
Cimatu suggested that the municipal government of Laua-an tap a company with technical capability to dredge and desilt the shallowed river and its tributaries.
Silt is eroded soil leached by flowing water into the river bed, usually during heavy rains, hence blocking the efficient flow of water and “drowning” the surrounding residential areas.
I can picture the problem out because, as children in the 1950s, my friend Joe Escartin and I would often swim in the neck-deep portion of the river known as Suba Mayor. An islet isolated that portion from the shallow other half. The river served as demarcation line between barangays San Pedro and Durog in San Jose, Antique. The distance between the two river banks was about 100 meters.
Today, however, that islet is gone, widening the distance from bank to bank by a kilometer. An entire barangay of titled residential lots in San Pedro has disappeared to become part of the shallowed river.
Joe has relayed our concern to Mayor Elmer Untaran. May he, like Baladjay, act accordingly.
Cimatu – whose wife, the former Fe Aguillon, is a native of San Jose – also discussed the importance of rehabilitating the river in the barangay of Malandog in Hamtic. It is not only a natural fishing port but a historical and tourism site. Given proper impetus, since it widely believed to be where the ten Bornean datus first landed in the 13th century, it could attract year-round tourists.
But times there are when the river water gets so stagnant that it accumulates coliform dumped from restaurants and piggeries.
He asked the mayors to also play a more active role in growing bamboo for continuous greening of private and public lands and for livelihood purposes. He would like Western Visayas to become “bamboo capital of the Philippines.”
Incidentally, the town of Maasin, Iloilo has already proven itself capable of producing useful bamboo products ranging from toothpicks to world-class furniture and cottages. A former mayor, incidentally, has made a fortune going into that business.
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Why did the provincial government demolish the regional office of the Department of Tourism (DOT)?
It’s for the better, since DOT will be transferred to a bigger home in what is the present site of the present Philippine Red Cross (PRC) building beside the six-story parking building of the provincial capitol.
The PRC, on the other hand, will be relocated to its new building which is still under construction near the Iloilo National High School in La Paz
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The rehabilitated Iloilo Central Market now looks as good as new. Thanks to City Hall for undertaking its repair and repainting.
Manang Nitz Gobuyan suggests that Mayor Jerry Treñas also refurbish La Paz Public Market. (hvego@gmail.com/PN)
