INDEED, it is one laudable act for the local government of Davao City to immediately mobilize resources of whatever nature and bring the same to typhoon and flood-stricken Cebu Province.
It is one way of showing gratitude to the Almighty for the city’s apparent safe location from calamities like typhoons and deadly flooding.
Yes, it is not only the city’s safe location but also its abundance in resources that allows it to generate substantial income, which is also worth looking into as a reason why it has to be generous enough to other local governments faced with the humongous problem of survival and recovery.
In the case of Cebu, it has been hit by a double whammy in just a period of one month. First, there was the tremendous earthquake that leveled to the ground residential and commercial buildings and government infrastructure in the northern sector of the island province. That was in the early days of last October. And then last Monday of this week of November, a much deadlier and catastrophic typhoon with a massive flood to boot literally wiped out several areas in the Central Visayas province.
The resulting destruction, in fact, led some netizens to post a rather disturbing joke on Facebook saying in effect that, “In Metro Manila, after the flood, garbage and other household refuse are piled on the streets. In Cebu, the flood piles up motor vehicles on different sections of the roads.”
This is where Metro Manila is clearly beaten by Cebu. Or, is Cebu much cleaner than Metro Manila that the flood has no more garbage to swift so it has to make do with the expensive vehicles that are either parked in the garage or along the roads?
Then, on both sides of the Mananga River in Talisay City, the dikes constructed supposedly as a means to prevent flooding in the riverside communities, we saw in video footage that these are still proudly standing.
Yet, the water from the upstream was so large in volume that it submerged the concrete dikes and whatever was blocking its way. After the storm died down and the flood water began to recede, the nearby communities on both sides of the river were sights of wrecked houses and buildings. The communities were somewhat erased from the map of Talisay City.
Maybe it is worthwhile that some of the assistance coming from lucky Davao City may be given to the residents of the destroyed communities in that area in Talisay City, Cebu. We are certain that no matter how small the aid, it will be heartily appreciated.
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There is a lot of bashing of the mayors of some municipalities in Cebu who proceeded with their official trip to London despite earlier warnings of a coming storm likely to hit the province. As of yesterday, there were no reports that any of them had already returned to the country. Now the question: Should they be chastised for their actions?
Well, it depends really whether there were attempts to hold in abeyance their departure or not. After all, the mayors concerned were given authority to travel by the Provincial governor herself. Also, no one from among them, not even the official giving the authority to travel, had any idea that the typhoon would generate that much rain to trigger massive flooding in various parts of the province, most of which were the towns headed by the jet-setting local chief executives.
Perhaps the mayors were just too trusting that Tino, the typhoon, was just like all other typhoons that hit Cebu in the past – all strong winds minus the heavy rains.
But of course, if they persisted in finishing whatever official function they were attending in London and did not bother to go home despite the devastation of their municipalities and the suffering of their people, then by all means they should be castigated up to the 2028 elections.
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It is a good thing that finally the members of the Davao City Council have realized the relevance of renaming some forty barangays in the poblacion area from the present number with a letter of the alphabet to something more respectable, like the names of persons or anything more significant.
As part of the process in renaming the author of the proposed ordinance, Councilor J. Melchor Quitain is calling the 40 barangay chairmen to a seminar to brainstorm on what should be the best name given to the concerned barangays.
Quitain also made a good choice in having the Davao City Culture and Arts Office under Oscar Casaysay to conduct the seminar-workshop. The office will definitely be able to draw out from the barangay executives the necessary relevant inputs in coming up with the new names.
After all, the search for the appropriate name of the barangays concerned will consider such aspects as culture and history, as well as landmarks that can easily be associated with the place.
We can only congratulate Councilor Quitain for this laudable proposed measure. We have no doubt this will go a long way among Davaoeños.
