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OPINION
Leyte Samar Daily Express
Thursday, 29 August 2013
Leyte Samar
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Dalmacio C. Grafil Publisher Ven S. Labro Editor-in-Chief Alma M. Grafil Business Manager The Leyte Samar Daily Express is published daily with editorial and business offices at G/F Knights of Columbus Bldg., 187 P. Zamora St. Tacloban City CONTACT Tel. Nos. 321-4833/ 523-7373 Fax. (053) 321-5591 WEBSITE leytesamardaily.net EMAIL ADDRESS EDITORIAL lsdaily2@yahoo.com ADVERTISING lsdaily_ads@yahoo.com All rights reserved. Except as permitted by law, no part of Leyte Samar Daily Express may be re-produced or distributed in any form or by any means stored in a database or retrieval system without its prior written permission from the publisher.
Couldn’t, wouldn’t, shouldn’t
W
ith the intensity and attendance that marred the massive protest which was staged on National Heroes’ Day to call for the abolition of the pork barrel fund, President Aquino couldn’t, wouldn’t and shouldn’t remain deaf to the call of the masses. He couldn’t remain deaf to calls for the pork’s abolition because the strings of corruption into which the fund has gotten itself entangled is an abomination to his daang matuwid which ironically is aimed at purging the government of a systemic disease which has not spared even the most well-meaning of leaders. To sustain the pork despite overwhelming indications that the fund is being used to further the interest of the few to the prejudice of the many makes him a hypocrite, or at least
Floodwater menace
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would brand him as a president who doesn’t have the balls. He wouldn’t dare sustain the pork lest he makes his parents turn in their graves for blotching what they have tried to sustain their whole lives, for not living up to what they had to die for. The multitude that rose to their feet to protest the death of his father and to place his mother in victory will be the same multitude to rise up to protest his flaccidness for not heeding the call of the masses to put to oblivion the Filipino shame that is the pork barrel. And he shouldn’t remain oblivious to the people’s call for the pork’s abolition because three years is just too short for them to forget that he was the President who didn’t have the courage to do what should be done.
Nowadays, the impact of heavy downpours is immediately felt. In fact, just a little downpour there is and the soil seemingly fails to absorb the rainwater despite having had sunny days prior to that. Why is this so? Know what, this is not quite good, especially during the time of the year when rains are abundant, threatening us with the usual plagues that we experience every time the rainy season comes such as floodwaters that affect people’s mobility, agricultural infrastructures, and many more. The recent flooding in Metro Manila
and its neighboring areas exemplify those horrors. Actually, the soil cannot hold water by itself as it will merely suffer from erosion and mudslides. Soaked in much water, the soil has to be exposed to sunlight for it to dry, which is not easy to achieve in the midst of prolonged rains. There is a need primarily for trees whose roots could keep the soil intact and could consume the water that lay on the ground to get rid of floods and the feared soil erosions. These trees have to be everywhere, especially in areas that are prone to flooding. Above all, they
should abound on the mountains from which abundant water rushes down during heavy rains. With these trees in great abundance, floods and landslides can be mitigated. Without the fortress of trees in the mountains, the soil becomes too weak to resist the penetrating effects of water. Mountains easily soften and fall apart in the absence of roots that could keep them intact. Rainwater, too, easily accumulates in the slopes, getting abundant as it cascades down to the plains where houses and agricultural crops are usually located, causing destructive floods in the process. It comes as no surprise that water level easily rises in low-lying areas. But the absence of trees is not the only contributory factor to the flooding phenomenon. Nor should the rains, though
incessant and heavy, be blamed as another culprit since they are supposedly natural occurrences. What aggravates most is this proliferation of garbage materials thrown by people everywhere that eventually clog drainage systems and natural waterways. When trash of all sorts accumulates, it traps the water flow designed to exit into the proper outlets, causing water to overflow from drainage structures, and on to residential areas and thoroughfares. This wanton and irresponsible littering of garbage is in fact one of the biggest causes of flooding. Good thing about it is that, people can stop doing it to minimize flooding. It’s more of a problem that proves recurrent because people allow it to recur. But if they will address its root causes, flooding could be managed and addressed, though quite hardly, though not overnight.