TABUK CITY, Kalinga – A group and several prominent members of Tabuk City society have called for vigilance and active participation in seeing to it that the P5.5B flood control project for the Chico River just approved by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) will serve its purpose.
The Tabuk Multi-purpose Cooperative (TAMPCO), the biggest cooperative in the province, vowed to work aggressively with other groups to ensure that the flood control project will be implemented properly.
Citing that thousands of its members are affected by floods from the Chico River and that the cooperative has been a part in the crafting of plans for the dredging of the river to stop the devastating floods, the TAMPCO Board of Directors passed a resolution during their meeting on October 8 expressing its intent to work with other groups to keep the implementation of the project transparent.
Board Chairman Claudio Bagano said the cooperative shall participate in the close monitoring of the project “to protect the interest of farmers.”
Prime Bishop Renato Abibico of the Anglican Church has called for the creation of a provincial or Tabuk City monitoring group composed of different sectors ”whom we could trust” ”to make our vigilance more effective and solid.”
The church leader said: “This is now an opportunity that we should not let go but should meet with enthusiasm since the project, as described, intends to address once and for all the perennial flooding that Tabuk experiences whenever there are typhoons. This is a gift to us but we must also prove ourselves to be worthy by seeing to it that this project will be spared from anything that would derail its noble intention because of corruption.”
Abibico urged the inclusion of the Kalinga-Apayao Religious Sector Association (KARSA in the monitoring team.
The KARSA is an association of local clergymen which has built a reputation of fearless project monitoring.
Dr. Jaime Almora who’s family’s 60-hectare estate in Taniok, New Tanglag has been roughly halved over the years due to the floods of the Chico River said that there should be monitoring because if the fund is not used properly, it is highly unlikely that the city will have a second chance to comprehensively solve the river flooding problem.
“NGOs could raise protest anytime they observe something amiss in the implementation. That is the only way to check and balance,” he said adding that in the past, there were a lot of flood control projects which were only good on paper.
Almora had pushed for the dredging of the Chico River as early as 2004 in the wake of . His reasons that since the floods are caused by the heavy siltation of the river, then the river should be desilted and the old channel be re-established.
“We should tame the river by making a way for it and not by constructing structures that block the flow of the water. Not one of the dikes constructed in the river to contain the flood stands,” he said.
Regarding the five-year implementation schedule of the project, Almora said that time if of the essence because just one storm could carry away what remains of the farmlands in Tuliao in barangay Calanan and in barangay New Tanglag explaining that the river is poised to push in that direction when it swells.
He is however happy that at least now, the people of Tabuk could bank on the fund committed for the project.
He agrees there should be close monitoring because if the fund is misused, the people of Tabuk will no longer have a second chance.
“NGOs could raise a protest anytime they observe something amiss. That is the only way to check and balance. We all know that in the past, we only had flood control projects on paper.
Speaking as a farmer, Board Member Lester Lee Tarnate also sees the necessity of people bonding together and taking an active role in ensuring that the project is done right even as he pointed out the many flood control projects undertaken in the Chico River which he said were all a waste of funds.
Wondering if the 300-meter wide channel designed by the DPWH could contain the volume of water when the river swells, Tarnate said that the DPWH should open the design and plans for scrutiny declaring that if these are not fool-proof, the fund will go down the drain.
Tarnate also expressed concern that the project should not affect titled lots which were destroyed by the river saying that the owners still pay taxes for them. **Estanislao Albano, Jr.
