We hope this one is fake news peddled around using the social media.
We mean the post by a netizen saying that Davao City ranks No. 10 globally as having the most chaotic traffic situation.
Of course, whether the post is true or not, the fact is that humongous vehicular traffic is now common place in the city’s major thoroughfares. And this is despite the fact that a part of the city’s multi-billion pesos coastal road is already open to vehicular traffic since about a year ago.
We are hoping though that the problem of the fast-growing traffic congestion ill finally be addressed when the by-pass road with a tunnel component will finally be open to traffic. The question however, is when? It appears that the work on the said road project is getting slower by the day.
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What happened to the plan of the City Government of Davao to put up a huge water catchment somewhere in the plains between sitio Battalion in Mandug and the adjoining barangays? The purpose of the artificial catch basin is to store portion of flood water at the Davao River when strong rain occur to prevent immediate flooding in areas like Tigatto, Mandug, Maa and subsequently the barangays surrounding the Bankerohan Market area.
The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the financing body of Japan’s international assistance projects, was already conducting a study on the project area and doing consultations with the residents of barangays to be affected by the project implementation. JICA was assisted in the study and consultations by people from the City Housing Office (now a new city government Department)
The artificial catchment would have allowed the diversion of flood water to the catch basin area to slow down the flooding in low level barangays along the Davao River starting from Barangay Mandug.
It’s been years already and there seems to be no further development on the planned JICA-funded project. However, there were talks coming from City Hall saying that the one important anti-flooding project will not anymore be pursued.
Why, what happened? It is this kind of ambivalent decision of our city officials that could have led to the failure of the local government of Davao City to address the flooding problem that has been demonizing city residents for the longest time.
And yes, still on the seemingly endless flooding problem of Davao City; the apparent vulnerability of the members of the City Council to forceful – even enticing – request for tinkering with the existing zoning ordinance is exacerbating the city’s frequent inundation in flood water.
Think of the condition of hillsides at Shrine Hills, and the Magtuod area going to New Valencia and New Carmen in the third district. Trees – big and small – are now levelled to the ground to give way to high-end residential subdivisions that will cater to the caprice of the well-heeled of Davao society.
We have no idea what made the councilors decide that this kind of housing projects be allowed location in the last remaining tree-growths within the peripheries of the urban center. With trees out from a large area in the nearby hills and with the concreting of house construction sites and the residential subdivision roads, soil erosion and water flow will be fast going down the plains in the lowland communities nearby.
While projects like the ones earlier mentioned are undeniably monuments of development of Davao City, those who authorized it to happen without demanding clear mitigation measures from developers might not have thought of the possible negative consequences to the city and its residents.
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Can young lawyer Karlo Nograles pull a surprise win over deeply-rooted former Davao City Mayor and immediate Past Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte?
So far no one knows. However, the opportunity to have a clearer answer to the question comes when the official campaigning for candidates for local elective posts starts rolling.
This early it appears to us that the former President and come-backing mayoral aspirant Duterte is quite relax and confidently complacent. Understandable of course. What with his name already long a byword in Davao City households.
Meanwhile, Karlo whose name is not totally alien to Davaoenos being a scion of a political family that once held sway in the city’s first district, is just starting out to go beyond the boundaries of the highly urbanized area to reach out to the population he may have only seen for the first time.
With Karlo’s youth and his approachability, it is not far-fetch that he might be able to gain adherents.
Unfortunately for him, we have observed that he seems to have started wrong in his approaches especially in convincing the rural electorate that he is and could be one among them.
He also denies a number of locals the opportunity to see him in person. How? He uses high-end, closed vehicles in going to the rural areas. Thus, those residents in communities along the road could only think that he is inside a well ventilated vehicle away from possible sight of his future constituents.
Meanwhile, his political nemesis contents himself thinking that every Tom, Dick and Harry in the communities outside the urban center knows him from head to toe. Therefore, when voting time comes, the hands of the individual voter automatically shades the circle opposite his name.
Karlo and his advisers need to think of ways how to counter this Duterte advantage.
