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[av_heading heading=’‘I Am Iloilo’ is a sick Joke’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY LUIS BUENAFLOR JR.
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FORMER World Mayor No. 5 Jed Mabilog’s favorite line “I Am Iloilo”, which was supposed to mean Iloilo City is progressive and one of the “most liveable cities” in the country, has turned out to be a sick joke. That it was just an empty rhetoric with no substance and the total opposite of what it’s meant to promote was proven late afternoon last Monday.
The heavy downpour brought by Typhoon Helen that fateful Monday and lasted till the wee hours of Tuesday morning proved too much for “I Am Iloilo’s” fragile and already antiquated drainage systems.
Wait, does “I Am Iloilo” even have a drainage system?
People are beginning to suspect that what the city has are a series of manholes and drainage pipes that are totally unrelated and unconnected and most probably dead ends leading to nowhere.
Did I forget to mention that 99.9 percent of these so-called drainage pipes are full of garbage? I even saw an open manhole that Monday night with a discarded mattress sticking out. Who knows what else is in that manhole; the rest of the bed probably.
Almost the entire area starting from the Central Market, Iznart Street, Terminal Market to Robinsons mall, Fuentes Street , the streets around and going to the University of San Agustin and General Luna are flooded, causing a massive traffic jam.
The whole of La Paz market and plaza area is one big ocean and most of Jaro from Tabuc Suba is also under water.
Let’s just say to make a long story short; about 80 percent of “I Am Iloilo” is flooded.
The irony of it all is that Sen. Franklin Drilon, Cong. Jerry Treñas and Mayor Jed Mabilog all made a big deal in announcing “flood control projects” that will solve “I Am Iloilo’s” perennial flooding problems.
The thing is, the flooding problems of “I Am Iloilo” have gone from bad to worse!
Are these so-called “flood control systems” – if you can call it that – are just useless “white elephants” just like the “Hall of Justice” that almost collapsed at the first strong earthquake.
Along this line, here’s an excerpt from an interview over the radio of a well-known lawyer in Iloilo City.
“National security is not the area of expertise of Senator Drilon. He is an expert in dealing with contractors for multi million-peso projects,” said Atty. Hector Teodosio
I’m quite sure that line needs neither explanation nor interpretation but it pretty much explains the cause of the inconvenience the natives suffered on Monday.
And to add more salt to the wounds of the natives, “I Am Iloilo” has the highest rate for electricity not only in the country but in the world, according to a study by the non-government organization Freedom from Debt Coalition.
There’s more: “I Am Iloilo” does not have a sustainable supply of potable water. It also does not have a proper dog pound; of course, it means that the streets of the “most liveable city” has an overpopulation of stray dogs and that equals to a high risk for rabies of which “I Am Iloilo” has the highest number of cases in the country.
And here’s the clincher. Meat from the Iloilo City Slaughterhouse is not fit for human consumption! It seems that the National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS) refuses to certify the slaughterhouse on the account that the personnel, including the ones in charge, are neither qualified nor certified meat/animal handlers.
There’s also this little thing called hygiene or the lack of it in the slaughterhouse. For a highly urbanized city such as Iloilo, the minimum requirement is a slaughterhouse with a “double A” rating and ideal of course is a “triple A” rating. Iloilo City slaughterhouse does not even have a minus A rating.
Oh by the way, the municipality of Miagao, Iloilo just inaugurated its NMIS-certified “double A” slaughterhouse, not bad for a local government unit that’s not even “highly urbanized.”
I guess the joke is on the natives of “I Am Iloilo” and it’s not even funny; it does leave a bad taste in the mouth though./PN
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