By Mortz C. Ortigoza
Six days after I posted in August 2 a photo
where the management of the Bureau of Internal Revenue – Central Pangasinan
based in Calasiao had a makeshift wooded bench so its clients can cross it
without getting wet from the murky water that overflew from the drainage there,
Department of Public Works & Highway Regional Director Ronnel M.Tan copy
furnished me about the answers of Pangasinan 4th District Engineering Office District
Engineer Simplicio D. Gonzales – a Batangueno- to the photo I posted at Facebook that I sent to his (Tan) office.
Before Gonzales responded, here was the caption
of the photo that draw mixed, mostly critical, reactions from residents of
Pangasinan like members of the fourth estate and high standing members of the
society like Madam Lyn Ang.
 |
| Crane truck (like in photo), boom truck, water pump machines, others have been sent by the Department of Public & Highway after the author expose the clogged drainage system of the DPWH in Calasiao, Pangasinan. |
TAN LETTER:
“Thank
you for taking time to communicate with the DPWH, may we respectfully provided
you a copy of the reply of District Engineer Simplicio D. Gonzales on your
Facebook message “INCOMPETENT DPWH - Clients of the Bureau of Internal Revenue
–Central Pangasinan in Calasiao lambast the incompetence of the Fourth District
Engineering Office of the Department of Public Works & Highway under
District Engineer Simplicio D. Gonzales for a clogged drainage system. Every
time there was a downpour it immediately flooded the area at the expense of the
public. Look at the wooden bench (Photo 1 red circled) put by the BIR to be
used by its customers as makeshift bridge. One of the guards there complained
that the DPWH had neglected to clean the water way of the drainage it
constructed for countless of years already,” received at the DPWH Region 1
Facebook on August 2, 2019.”
GONZALES
LETTER:
“Originally,
the flood water in that premises should flow toward the creek passing thru an
open lot located at the Judge Jose de Venecia Road (across the Garden of Eden)
which is a private property. Last 2017, the owner of the lot decided to
heighten the elevation of his lot with fill. This action created for the water
in the area to get stuck. To address this problem, we proposed a repair/rehabilitation
of the drainage. It was already validated by the Bureau of Maintenance (central
office) and the regional office sometime in June 12, 2019 and it is now
included in the Proposed 2020 DPWH Budget. Attached are pictures taken during
the declogging activities in which the District Office considered as remedial
and immediate solution to address the flooding thereat while awaiting for the
release of the 2020 budget”
Last Monday, radio man Harold Barcelona and
Manila based tabloid- writer Erning Cayabyab, both friends of Gonzalez, told me
the D.E wanted to air his side to answer the unflattering comment I have about
his office.
Since I had bouts of with colds, stiff neck, and sore throats, that handicapped me not to walk, son of a gun, because
my upper thighs and butt were aching, I begged the duo that I could probably be
disposed on the following Friday.
When I met the amiable and sartorially elegant
Gonzales at his chic office he immediately tore up a yellow paper and
illustrated how the problems of that notorious drainages in Calasaiao ensued.
That after the regional director ordered him to
explain to my tirade he and his men, tong and hammer, er, crane truck, boom truck,
water pump machines, others buckled to work immediately to clean up the canals.
“Look
at the concrete covers, human beings could not just pull them out. It took a crane that
I purchased this year to do the job,” he showed to me the
photos of massive clean ups he personally supervised.
He cited that the constricted flow of the water
inside the drainage were not only composed of plastics and other non-biodegradable but “boulder
–like” grease or sebo he blamed to the owners of the eateries at the nearby
bulangan or cockpit.
Gonzales explained to me what he told in
writing the director.
 |
| The makeshift wooden bridge (red circle) at the Bureau of Internal Revenue in Calasiao, Pangasinan. |
The private property, he elaborated to me, is
located across the highway fronting the Garden of Eden Funeral and Chapel
Services.
“The
water from the cockpit, BIR, and those that stretches to the highways of Jollibee and Chowking at the junctions for the ways to Dagupan City, Sta.
Barbara, and Calasiao should have exited at a creek in that private and dumped
them at the Banaoang River going to Dagupan City”.
But the water from the canal no longer egress
on that creek because the owner of that property elevated it with sands and
soils.
Since 2018, upon his assumption of office, the
overflowing of the drainages in the town have been an eye sore.
“Through the help of Vice Mayor Mesina we found
the owner who allowed us to build a “palliative” solution or temporary canal
until the new drainage system at both sides of the Ramos Bridge will be
included in the 2020 national budget that will be allocated for my office".
As I passed by at the area Friday afternoon I
still saw the crane, boom truck, water pump machines, others with bevy of busy
DPWH personnel.
“Wow, all
of these behemoths are here because of that caption I posted at Facebook and my
blog,” I sheepishly told myself.
Gonzales told me all of these equipment he
bought last year after he replaced D.E Mariatta B. Mendoza to help his
office.
When I made another ocular inspection, the BIR
guards who still man the makeshift wooded bench cum bridge blurted out.
“Sir, sayang
hindi niyo naabutan isang babae kanina nahulog diyan sa tulay!”
One of them lamented what if a pregnant client
of the BIR falls and hurts herself and her baby in the womb.
(You can read my selected columns at
http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can
send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com)
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