Dave Achondo
HOW was it, fellow Kagay-anons? How was your Jan. 16. I guess it was spent stuck on traffic like we were. That was a reminder that Cagayan de Oro has more problems than traffic itself, and in the coming days, I am sure we will still be seeing people pointing fingers.
It was also a wake-up call for Mayor Oscar Moreno--he inherited this problem from his predecessors who apparently didn’t care. He has a very big problem now: how to prevent this from happening again. It was also a wake-up call to the city council. They all need to fix this issue ASAP. It won’t be a simple task--CDO’s drainage problems. Still, we would appreciate to see them exerting their best effort to solve the problem.
I would like to commend the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (CDRRMC) and the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council for their swift actions during the floodings. No matter what others say, I know they did their best.
On the way home from work, I became desperate because I was stuck in hours of traffic that lasted till the wee hours. Many others had the same experience. Our route took us from our Gusa office towards JR Borja Extension where cars couldn’t pass. We took a different route--towards Indahag, passing through the old and scary unfinished subdivision. Sadly, we still got caught in traffic jams in all directions. The most scary part of that experience was when we were passing through one of Indahag’s roads. Every time we decided to go back, a landslide seems to teke place. Later, we decided to call it quits after numerous tries of finding a better route towards the Cogon area. We ended up at the Buena Oro terminal in Aluba (which was also surprisingly flooded), and I decided to walk. Aluba to Tomas Saco 14 is far especially when it’s raining like crazy!
None of us really thought that that kind of rain would cause so much chaos in the city. None of us was even prepared for it.
As long as I could remember, the Limketkai area has always been flood-prone. But with all that mall’s development, I thought they fixed that problem a long time ago. But as we have seen, it turned out they didn’t. Nobody fixed it, and that big “hump” of a road from Recto Ave. towards the University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines (formally known as Must), in my opinion, made it even worst. It was said that it was built to prevent flooding there.
This city has improved so much. City hall built many school buildings but it forgot that there are other pressing problems other than education. I am not saying that it’s a bad thing to build more schools but I hope that the local government would also invest on making the city prepared for more urban development. We’re close to becoming a metropolis but our drainage system hasn’t been improved.
This city should start focusing on solving its drainage problem. What’s the point of calling Cagayan de Oro the “City of Golden Friendship” or “Metro CDO” when every time it rains, it gets flooded?
We should even blame people who throw garbage into our rivers and creeks. Collectively, they clogged up the city’s drainage system. It’s really time to stop throwing garbage into bodies of water. And stop turning our waters into septic tanks and dumpsites.
