ANL September 2012 Issue

E  D  I  T  O  R  I  A  L

Dams  for flood control, anyone?

The provincial government of Pangasinan and the management of the mammoth San Roque Dam—built at San Manuel town in the densely populated province—have had a bickering in the aftermath of the successive onslaughts by cyclones “Ondoy” and “Pepeng”  late September to early October 2009 flooding Metro-Manila, central and northern Luzon spawned by typhoon rains.

Pangasinan governor Amado Espino berated a dam engineer in an ensuing press conference when the latter could not fully expound on any official policy or procedure on timely releases of excess rainwater from the dam. The two parties later agreed on a  protocol for a proper early warning system on water releases from the dam; and to foster closer coordination between them on the critical problem of flooding caused by undue releases of dam water during stormy days. 

Exactly three years this September 2012, what did Pangasinenses got?  At the height of incessant monsoon rains (“habagat”) last month, 5-9 August, Governor Espino announced plans to sue dam operator National Power Corporation to compel the shutdown of the huge reservoir for apparently forgetting and/or ignoring  whatever was agreed upon in the aftermath of the tragic and costly “Ondoy-Pepeng” deluge spawned by spilled dam waters from San Roque.

Ironic as it is, flood control is said to be one of the “many uses” of San Roque Dam. But wherever province a dam is located, people—including Metro-Manilans—are on the uproar fearing and protesting the devastations caused by untimely and/or undue and improper releases of dam waters during danger periods of typhoons and monsoon rains as big and tragic as this year’s and 2009’s. We got damned by spilled dam waters costing precious lives, limbs and properties.  anl . sep2012

N  E  W  S  L  I  N  E

Tayug-Asingan dike ripped off!

By:   Engr. Joe L. Sevilla  .  ANL Asingan Correspondent

The huge non-cemented Agno River dike at  Barangay Sta. Ana-Tayug  near the tri-boundary of Tayug-San Manuel-Asingan towns in eastern Pangasinan province was  nearly ripped off by erosion caused by rampaging waters released from San Roque Dam in the wake of a weeklong monsoon rains early last month, August.  Part of the same dike at Barangay Carmen in Rosales town was torn off September 2009 by torrent floodwaters at the height of typhoon “Pepeng”  swamping the floors of the sprawling SM City-Rosales  rendering most parts of the province underwater for days.

Residents around the area express fears on another onslaught of monsoon flood  totally breaching the dike posing grave danger of submerging and washing out wide areas east from San Manuel town to Asingan, Binalonan, Villasis, Urdaneta City, Sta. Barbara, Manaoag, and far west to flood-prone Dagupan City—all in the northern bank of the Agno River basin that slices Pangasinan into halves east-to-west in a lengthwise fashion.

Pangasinan lands with the top five provinces of the country in terms of land area, of income and population size with over two million people. It has remaining forests at its Caraballo mountain range arching north-to-east of the province. It has the rich and historic Lingayen Gulf. It owns the largest cattle market in the country situated at Urdaneta City. It has the iconic Manaoag Church serving both as religious spot and tourist attraction. It is one of the top three rice granary and vegetable producing provinces in the Philippines.

It houses the giant San Roque Dam—one of the 20 biggest in the world—built at Barangay San Roque in the municipality of San Manuel. It has the Agno River Basin—one of the three largest in the country—that is both a fishing ground and sand-and-gravel source at summer time;  and a source of irrigation before the typhoons come.

The province is home to the famous sea salt and bagoong industry and the equally popular “Dagupan bangus” [milkfish] grown in Bolinao, Lingayen and Dagupan. It has fine and famous beaches in San Fabian and in the island-town of Anda. And, finally, it prides having the famous and scenic  Hundred Islands  punctuating the riches and grandeur of the province.

Pangasinan province has two abandoned  small-to-medium airstrips [airports]—one in the capital town Lingayen and the other at Brgy. Carmen in Rosales town. An annual festivity unique to Pangasinenses along the seashores of Lingayen Gulf called “Pista’y Dayat”  [Feast of the Sea] is held on Labor Day, or every May 1 of the year. Simultaneously holding this historic event are townspeople of about ten seaside municipalities in the Gulf area.

With the “wealth of wonder” that Pangasinan has, the entire province could not afford bearing the yearly damages that typhoons and flooding inflict on the hardworking Pangasinense. Floodwaters from Ambuklao and Binga dams up north in the Cordilleras and  from nearby San Roque Dam spilled into  the Agno River basin on stormy days not only destroy crops and properties but eats up as well hundreds of hectares of productive lands eroded yearly. This is inimical to a sustainable future that the province is envisioning for its people.   anl . sep2012

P  U  N  C  H  L  I  N  E

A Commentary:  Dams of damnation!

By:   Rowena Agaton-Balino  .  Photo/Lay-out Artist, ANL

Dam proponents are quick to put forward vested interests over and above anyone’s, not even the people’s. Government, big business and contractors collude and agree on the use-value of a project jaded from public scrutiny while the big bucks change hands.  And that’s a mere icing on the cake!

In the wake of so much grumblings and debates on disastrous flooding attributed to ineptly managed dams all over the country, Asingan NewsLine  focuses eye on the intents and results in having these structures even as dam seekers urge building more as if these were cash vaults.

For an objective look at the issue on the dams which proliferate more in Luzon, the northernmost island and the largest in the country, we took hints from the outrage of Gov. Amado Espino of Pangasinan against these dams that batter his turf with floodwaters virtually every year.

Pangasinan province sits in an enviable location endowed with the various ecosystems vital for a vigorous economy. Caraballo mountain range stretches north to east on its borders with five adjoining provinces. Lingayen Gulf is Pangasinan’s territorial waters. The province possesses vast agricultural plains, salt farms and fishery areas, and fine beaches along the Gulf. Agno River basin winds up within the province serving as fishing and gold panning ground, sand-and-gravel source and irrigation supply. Pangasinan’s pride and fascinating Hundred Islands were scattered well within Lingayen Gulf. And, for all purpose and intent, the gigantic San Roque Dam is built on Pangasinan soil at Barangay San Roque in San Manuel town. Sadly though, these riches are now critically compromised by both natural and man-made calamities.

“Dams were rammed through our throat,” said an angry old woman refugee-victim whom we talked to at Barangay Tatalon, Quezon City in the wake of the September 2009 deluge spawned by cylone “Ondoy” submerging  Metro-Manila. Peoples’ ire rose high when all five dams both in nearby Bulacan and Rizal provinces released so much dam waters without due notices or early warning.

Back at Governor Espino’s turf Pangasinan, the province was one of the hardest hit by the equally harsh cyclone “Pepeng”  that follows “Ondoy”  a  few days later. Housing one of the world’s biggest dams, San Roque, the province was submerged in floodwaters when the huge dam opened spillways without prior notice or warning. A portion of the Agno River dike at Barangay Carmen  in Rosales town was breached by overflowing floodwaters swamping most parts of the province.

That time, Espino castigated dam management for ineptness. August this year when monsoon rains [“habagat”] battered Luzon in days, the ordeal was repeated and this time the governor is suing dam operator National Power Corporation for the total shutdown of San Roque. Posted on facebook by one Roger Birosel, he says:  “The dams are damning our lives more often than not!”

The government’s National Power Corporation claims otherwise saying a DAM is intended for POWER SUPPLY,  IRRIGATION and FLOOD CONTROL. The intention on paper was good but flaws rear an ugly head from the very start. Dam projects were never a subject of public consultation much less a consensus of the very communities being displaced upon construction and the affected public thereafter.  

People have learned from decades of heart-rending experiences. Case in point is the Ambuklao-Binga-San Roque chain of dams in that order. The first two lies north and central Benguet province. Down south just across the provincial boundary with Pangasinan is San Roque. On stormy days, these dams normally releases excess water all at the same time causing excessive flooding down the plains of Pangasinan and Tarlac provinces effectively negating the “FLOOD CONTROL” clause.

The “IRRIGATION” clause does not apply at all in the case of Ambuklao and Binga dams as these were built up there on the ridges of the Cordillera mountains where there are no  adjoining agricultural plains. The San Roque master plan shows an 80-20 power-irrigation percentage ratio. Interestingly, the small cemented irrigation canals were there laid out unfinished and far from operational even after over a decade of dam operation.

In all actuality, these dams cater largely to the needs of big business for power supply and the wellbeing of the people only secondary. The dams around Metro-Manila are a menace to peoples’ safety. Dams are supposedly being watched in a 24-hour basis yet these are ambiguously mismanaged at critical times. These dams have eroded hectares upon hectares of productive lands every stormy season in decades past. 

Asingan NewsLine  is not anti-dam. It recognizes hydroelectric dams are clean sources of energy. Sources like solar panels and windmills are feasible and safe as well. Natural gas is rising in use and importance but so does its cost. While we see government settles for the dams, it seems less intent on supplementing the dams with other clean and renewable source of power. We see, too, a government more adept at politicking than good governance and sustainable development.  anl . sep2012

F   E   A   T   U   R   E

FLOODING:  Root causes and Remedies

By:  Ruben M. Balino,  Editor-In-Chief, ANL

                                     MSF,  Environmental Science

                                        

My co-forester and environmentalist wife says she used to frolic in the rains with co-toddlers in a neighborhood in Malate, Manila where she was born. She recalls, thus: “The old metropolis that came to be known as Metro-Manila was relatively green in the mid-sixties with trees and grasses in most parts. The rain was cool and fresh sans the acid from pollutant greenhouse gases floating and dulling the atmosphere. Flooding was a rare occurrence then and if ever it did happen it is more of the ankle-deep rainfall record for the year rather than waters cascading down from somewhere else overland.”  

As years wear on flooding rose up to critical levels where toddlers eventually lost both freedom and safety to wade the likes of today’s nose-deep and polluted killer floodwaters. The ordinary man in the street was wondering what  really are the root causes of these floods? If and when, how could these be remedied?

People and their own government as major stakeholders must realize that the problem on flooding is exacerbated by both natural and man-made causes. Rainfall is but natural although the phenomenon called “regime of extremes”—that is, “La Nina” or “excessive rainfall” during wet season on the one hand; and “El Nino” or “prolonged drought” at summer days on the other—points to man’s action as one of the main culprits in heating up the globe’s temperature resulting to such adverse climatic regimes. Man polluted his entire surroundings and continues decimating what is left of the globe’s flora [plant cover]  and fauna [animal population].

Land use conversion has only man to blame on his decisions of tearing down and converting an intact ecosystem into yet another less sustainable use like golf courses and exclusive subdivisions on rolling hills and steeply elevated areas. Man continues manufacturing and using harmful chemicals and warfare materiel inimical to the environment and to man’s safety himself. Nuclear plants and gigantic dams like San Roque sitting near ”digdig fault” [an earthquake line] 22 kilometers northeast on its boundary with Nueva Vizcaya province is inviting danger with catastrophic proportion.

Unplanned, careless and rampant urbanization widening the so-called cemented “urban jungle” are man’s suicidal acts preventing rainwater from sinking down into the aquifers. Waste and garbage thrown around by a largely insensitive and undisciplined population clog waterways while portion of which finds way to seashores and ocean beds. Old, obsolete and inadequate drainage systems in urban centers can hardly contain and dispose off  excess rainfall.

Still, others with superficial knowledge on and analysis of the problem readily point at population boom and the increasing number of informal settlers in urban areas as major players in the  problem of yearly flooding and erosion while government fails poorly in nailing down destructive big loggers, miners and illegal poachers in which case laxity and corruption in law enforcement crop up as a major aggravating factor as well.

The extent of damages flooding have caused on people in both urban and rural areas are becoming more risky, costly and unbearable. Aside from human and animal lives, crops and properties sacrificed, flooding eats up hectares of lands eroded yearly; infrastructures like huge dikes, roads, bridges and power lines breached or destroyed. Untold sufferings command no less than unswerving commitment at providing lasting remedies to mitigate such monumental damages.

Deforestation of the country’s remaining forests and watershed areas must be put to a stop. Rehabilitate or reforest denuded areas. Individuals, families and civil society groups, government employees and the private sector should plant trees in every plausible space—along roads, riverbanks  and farm perimeters; backyards, school grounds, churchyards, graveyards and plazas; spaces in subdivisions and commercial districts; rooftop forestation and gardening.

Alongside this serious effort at countrywide tree planting must go with it a no-nonsense education campaign to imbibe community discipline and environmental awareness, cooperation and volunteerism. A Filipino migrant-friend in Switzerland says that rivers and waterways in Europe are not littered with wastes and garbage despite people and families residing along these water bodies. Good and effective law enforcement, she emphasizes, springs from a sincere and honest governance.  The very positive virtues on  volunteerism, cooperation and discipline were molded by serious education, value formation and awareness building, she clarifies. And, of course, love of country, she hastens to add.

Some advocates suggest the building of the more manageable and less costly mini-hydroelectric plants wherever possible rather than the huge and dangerous type of dams less affordable for the country to build and manage. And as the horizons for both science and technology widen, other countries are showing the way at supplementing hydropower with  solar and windmill technologies. And why can’t the Philippines?

Or why can’t government rehabilitate old and obsolete drainage system and build new ones to cover the entire metropolis. Flooding costs on lives, properties and infrastructures far exceed the costs of any rehabilitation and modernization projects of these types. Pork barrels for all three branches of government—the executive, legislative and judiciary—worth hundreds of billions each annually are more than enough to deliver this country from rags to progress.

Regulating the seeming anarchy in land conversion and urbanization, and instituting a sustainable formula for both urban and rural community planning are primarily the tasks of government. Insincere, corrupt and inefficient governance only spells calamity, or more of it coming!  anl . sep2012

L  I  T  E  R  A  R  Y

“Thoughts Parade”

 a.  ML@40: Never Again!

 Martial Law, imposed by virtue of  Presidential Proclamation 1081 signed September 21, 1972 but was declared in the dead of night the following day by then Philippine President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos who himself is the very architect of the infamous rule, shocked and catapulted the country into despotism, corruption and poverty.

Pandemonium broke loose as warrantless raids and arrests were done round-the-clock in every nook and cranny the police and military could lay their hands on.  Enforced “sona”, or village-to-village search, made people to form long queues on streets and searched for IDs and cedulas, arrested men sporting   long hairs and tattoos, and senseless lots. Target personalities were hauled to jail except for the vigilant youth leaders who with their flock conveniently “seek comfort” among the masses in the countryside.

On the pretext of wanting to “effectively eliminate the communist threat” and reign in what he calls then as “anarchy and criminality in the streets”; “reform society and build a new one to improve the lots of the Filipino people”, Marcos built a conjugal dictatorship at the expense of genuine freedom and democracy. Himself a suspect of murdering his father’s political foe Julio Nalundasan, Ferdinand was discreet in his vile scheme at eliminating his own political foes who were about to supplant him from power had he not imposed martial rule.

Aside from usurping freedom and democracy, martial rule did have immeasurable blood debts and sorrows inflicted on innocent people—all of about 12 thousand arrested and incarcerated, tortured, raped, murdered, and forcibly disappeared—that until now in 40 years are never indemnified and/or rendered justice. Millions more were victims of martial law’s harshest anti-insurgency campaigns in terms of displaced population due to forced evacuations, hamleting, indiscriminate bombings, crossfire, arson, harassments, robbery,  and other criminal atrocities against the people.  

The Marcos dictatorship obnoxiously built a cabal of moronic and fascist police and military generals and a throng of parasitic cronies and technocrats fed with people’s tax and foreign debts. It laid out a mantle of power clothed in legal jargon as “constitutional authoritarianism”  odiously governed by general orders [GOs] and presidential decrees [PDs].  

Marcos’ wife and alter ego, Imelda Romualdez, was herself the “imeldific” monster molded by martial rule turned rabid evangelist of the culture of lavishness, greed and extravagance in a banana republic she and her dictator husband shamelessly built.

Equally worse was Marcos crafting an import dependent and debt oriented economy that put the country into mendicancy at the hands of syndicated international usurers like the IMF-World Bank.

Martial Law was a war that devoured  its own children and people, most painful of all—the brightest and the bravest. Some says that it’s better for the dead in that they were mourned and carried to their graves while it is an infinite torture imagining of the disappeared where could their bodies been thrown away and eaten by the elements.

And yes, it’s equally horrible thinking of martial law@40 while the perpetrators of such a heinous reign of greed and terror were back here remaining scot-free and virtually swaggering in power as before…Never again! 

By:  Ruben “Ka Bencio” Balino  [One of six core-convener of the now famous League of Filipino Students representing GAUF (DLSAU). The others were: Susan Deborja of UP;  Mark Rosales of Adamson U;  Sonny Ramirez of UE;  Vic Pacia of  FEATI;  Diony Doronio of MLQU].

Note:  The following images were sent by our Alumni Correspondents abroad, namely: 1. Rudy D. Antonio of Vancouver, Canada.  2. Engr. Silver  M. Casilla & RN Merly Grospe-Mayo of USA.  3. Ronilo R. Corpuz of Vienna, Austria.  4. Fely Dumaguing-Malgapo of Milan, Italy.

b.

SS   S

c.

d.

e. where to? to?

f.  The "BALANGIGA MASSACRE" of 1901.  Exactly 111 years ago this September 28, 2012, the people of Balangiga town in Samar  island of the Visayas commemorates what  is now known  as “Balangiga  Massacre”  in two notes, e.g., in glory and pride at the bravery of their forebears in boldly resisting  foreign occupation and oppression by attacking the garrison of U.S. occupation forces at the town center killing 48 soldiers; in terror and hatred at the genocidal retaliatory attacks by the Americans by ordering “kill all people aged 10 and above and burn Samar and make it  a howling wilderness.”

In retrospect, this sad note on the Philippine-American war resulted in the killing of mostly unarmed Filipino civilians estimated by U.S. historian Kenneth Ray Young   to  more than 50,000  in just a few months. This number far exceeds the 3,000 casualties in the so-called  “9/11 terrorist attack” and  approximates the 60,000 immediate casualties in the U.S. atomic attacks on  Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

In the back of our minds, there are a lot more to count. Now in the millions were killed in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, and in many more places where the “real and mighty terrorist” sets foot. –By: Ross “Ticong” Diaz

E  d  i  t  o  r  i  a  l     B  o  a  r  d

MEMBERS:  Rudy D. Antonio [Canada Correspondent];  Engr. Silver Casilla  &  RN Merly Grospe-Mayo [U.S. Correspondents];  Ronilo R. Corpuz [Vienna Correspondent];  Fely Dumaguing-Malgapo [Milan Correspondent];  Engr. Joe  L. Sevilla [Asingan Correspondent];  Col. Lalin Layos-Pascual;  Ross C. Diaz;  Engr. Lorie  dG.  Estrada;  CPA Rod A. Layco;  Wena Agaton-Balino [Photo & Lay-out Artist];  Ruben “Bencio” Balino [ Editor-In-Chief].