Maharlika highway in Quezon closed due to floods
Climate Change/Environment • 22:30 PM Thu Nov 12, 2020
1
By:
MinDA Sec. Emmanuel Piñol
First image was provided by NDRRMC while the photo of the Cagayan floods was downloaded from the Facebook page of DA 2 Director Narciso Edillo.
A lumbering elephant!
After getting confirmation from NDRRMC Usec Ric Jalad that the highway in Lopez, Quezon is flooded, I decided call off my trip to the north and turn back.
The road portion in Lopez, Quezon which is now causing a huge traffic jam involving cargo trucks and private vehicles is the same place which was flooded a month ago.
We were able to get through by taking a long mountain road in the town of Guinayangan.
After that experience, I publicly suggested that an alternate route should be readied in case the flooding happens again.
Nangyari na nga uli and the worse part of this is the report by Usec Jalad that even in the Guinayangan alternate route, there were reported landslides.
So now, traffic from South to North and vice versa using the Maharlika Highway is at standstill.
This is simply because some people in government are slow to react and make remedial measures.
There is even a worse example of how slow the bureaucracy reacts to problems.
In October 2016, shortly after Typhoon Lawin hit Northern Luzon causing floods from the overflowing Cagayan River, I suggested to President Rody Duterte that dredging operations in the river should be considered.
President Duterte, who personally flew to Tuguegarao after Typhoon Lawin, mentioned about the dredging of Cagayan River in his speech but nobody gave it serious action.
Today, I saw a photo taken by DA Director Narciso Edillo showing an overflowing Cagayan River which expected to destroy crops and homes.
Nobody listened to the warning four years ago and a month ago.
No wonder the bureaucracy is often compared to a lumbering elephant which is slow to react.
This bureaucratic elephant that we have in the Philippines is also deaf and blind.