Reduction of Flooding in Dagupan If Cojuangco is its Cong.

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

In case the congressman of Dagupan City is the then Pangasinan 5^th District Rep. Mark Cojuangco, we would not be seeing these arrays of stupid mini Berlin Walls cum drainage systems that deface the already ugly city whenever it is submerged to flooding like we are experiencing for several days already.

FLOOD shrouds the AB Fernandez Ave. in Dagupan City in July 30. Photo Credit: Batang Dagupan

When an overzealous Regional Director of the Department of Public Works & Highway (DPWH) wanted to elevate the MacArthur Highway in the stretches of the center of Urdaneta City (just like what they have been doing unrestrained in Dagupan since time immemorial) to shy-away the perennial flooding, Cojuangco and then Mayor Amadeo Perez, Jr. took offense.

The duo, according to my source a retired regional director of a government agency and who asked for anonymity – lobbied in Malacanang for the axing from his post of the beleaguered Director.

Through the ardent intercession to the DPWH of Cojuangco, the public works initiated the construction of giant drainage culverts in the two sides of the wide highway. Thereafter, flood on that area became a thing of the past without resorting to elevation.

Photo is an internet grabbed.

If the cities of Urdaneta and Navotas could solve their perennial “water world' (my play of words to that famous 1995 action-science fiction flick’s Water World casted by Kevin Costner) problem without elevating their highways or roads that prejudice the ground floors and the pockets of the residents and businessmen, why not the DPWH Region-1 Director Ronnel Tan and DPWH District Engineer Edita Manuel of the 2nd District Engineering Office emulate them.

Presently, the DPWH and Dagupan City Mayor Belen T. Fernandez are being assailed by people from various sectors on the creation of that ugly drainage systems in Arellano Street and A.B Fernandez Ave. East that cost the coffer by P46 million and those to be created in A.B Fernandez Avenue up to Quintos Bridge, M.H del Pilar Street and Perez Boulevard that cost the government P75 million.

City Councilor Irene Lim-Acosta criticized the DPWH on the July 18, 2023 hearing of the lawmaking body when the city government declared on March 1 this year the plan for a drainage system, new flood gates and elevation of roads on its official Facebook Page. It was titled: Brand New and Bigger Drainage System Coming Soon.

Suspicious about the absence of public consultations with the affected sectors like those two universities in Arellano Street, Councilor Celia Lim asked the public works department to submit the complete plans of all the projects, details of the consultations conducted and to be conducted, venues, time, names of attendees and minutes of the meetings.

In case the officials of the DPWH were bereft of the requirments of public consultation, I exhort Manang Celia or any taxpayer to file a criminal and civil cases against them.

Photo credit: Batang Dagupan

Aside from the massive dredging of the heavily silted Sinocalan-Pantal River that I espoused on my past columns for 4^th District Cong. Toff de Venecia and DPWH D.E Manuel to vigorously lobby in Imperial Manila to mitigate if not eliminate the flooding in the city, Businessman and Engineer Joseph Lo told the Councilors of Dagupan on that same hearing that Navotas – that is besieged by flood half of the year – solve the submersion of its city by using Vactron, construction of a wall through sheet or steel piling and pumping floodwater into the river after the rains.

If the cities of Urdaneta and Navotas - I read used 39 pump machines - could solve the puzzle of flooding, why  the officials of the  DPWH in Lingayen and San Fernando City, La Union and the officials of Dagupond City cannot do it?

Are they patently incompetent?