Yesterday was the 12th day since our area, including our household of course, experienced waterless hours starting as early as 7 in the morning until as late as 9 to 10 in the evening. Our predicament started last April 24, 2024 when water suddenly stopped flowing from our faucets. When we inquired from the Davao City Water District (DCWD) we were told that looping and tapping work is ongoing leading to Tacunan in Tugbok district. Further, the schedule of water service temporary stoppage was supposed to be only from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. but is slated to be extended up to 9 in the evening of the same day.
We are just wondering why the supposed 13 hours of service interruption has lingered until yesterday, and most likely today. Twelve days of waterless households during the early morning to late hours of the night is already too much for the consumers in the affected areas that are reported to be already served by the water coming from the bulk delivery of Apo Agua to DCWD.
If only to remind the two business entities the P12 billion partnership project they undertook is a joint commitment of both to improve the delivery of water to the consumers and to expand the service area coverage. But what is happening now as clearly gauged on the screens of every consumer’s mobile phone and related gadgets? All they have to do is open the cellular phones and surely the will see the screens littered with announcements of service outages here and there, the operation of the bulk water delivery project notwithstanding.
This serious weakness in the operations aspect of the water agency’s service is starkly in contrast with the very consumer-friendly behavior of the DCWD’s office front liners.
We can only hope that DCWD will be able to put an immediate stop to this contradiction in its two major faces of service. And perhaps it can also sit down with its partner in the Bulk Water Project so together the two entities can thresh out where they have failed in their joint commitment to the people of Davao City.
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Towards the end of last week law enforcers in Davao City were able to conduct a buy-bust operation that led to the capture of certain drug dealers and the confiscation of an estimated P5 million worth of shabu. There was no encounter during the buy-bust thus there was no death or anyone hurt both from the lawmen and the alleged drug dealers.
With several buy-busts and capture of illegal drug merchants that happened lately perhaps people can safely assume that those engaged in the trade of the prohibited drugs appear to be unmindful of the threat of Davao City Mayor Baste Duterte that they will die if they do not stop their business in the city. Meaning, the mayor’s threatening words were just taken for granted.
Our take though, is that Mayor Baste talked too soon and he seems to have initially made good his warning quite close to the time he uttered his threat. Hence, it was seen as very obvious by the police national leadership and the human rights advocates both at the local and national levels.
Yes, the national police leadership, after the shooting to death of two drug suspects a day or two after the mayor issued his warning, immediately did a refrain of the new police strategy of dealing with suspected drug pushers, dealers and users.
At the same time the human rights groups tacitly released statements related to the extra-judicial killing charges the Mayor’s father is being investigated on by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Now those engaged in illegal drug dealings appear to be taking full advantage of the mayor’s sudden “coldness on his feet.” These illegal merchants are now boldly operating under the very noses of the mayor and the law enforcers. In fact they appear to be stocking their prohibited merchandise right in the city proper as evidenced by the P5 million drug bust last week.
Maybe it is time Mayor Baste should sit down with his father, restudy the former President’s style and come up with a much improved version for better implementation with less controversial aftermath.
Maybe that could give the city the real “drug-free” tag.
