Anatomically Bureaucrat

I wrote the below letter on May 31, 2006 to Sec. Hermogenes Ebdane suggesting that the concerned Cabinet Clusters in Malacañang form a task force to resolve the flash flooding in Pangasinan.  It was informed to the Secretary, that not only Pangasinan, but his own home town in Zambales as well as H.E. The President’s home province in Pampanga are affected by the flash floods.  And that the flood mitigation measures thereat, are merely pallatives and not the real solution to the problem.

These are caused by a long standing problem: the billions of volcanic deposits in the higher portions of regions 1 and 3 especially that were spewed by Mt. Pinatubo.

The Information Officer of Sec. Ebdane at DPWH merely wrote to me the following response, but failed to take note of the real intention of the letter.  You be the judge of Ms. Pilorin’s capacity to address issues, thus:

June 12, 2006

Dear Writernetwork,

With regards to your query, please be informed that the 2nd Pangasinan Engineering District informed the Office of Mayor of Dagupan for the receipt of the Sub-Allotment Advice (SAA). Pre-construction activities in progress and requested for his representative to monitor and ensure quality of project implementation. Another letter dated May 11, 2006 was sent to the Mayor informing him that the projects has been bid and Notice to Commence Work has been issued to the winning contractors. Very truly yours,

ELIZABETH P. PILORIN
OIC-Chief, Public Information Division
Email to : info@dpwh.gov.ph
From:  asianforum@asia.com

May 31, 2006The Honorable
Hermogenes E. Ebdane, Jr.
Secretary
DPWH
Post

Sir:

I am writing this letter in response to the negative publicity the DPWH under your leadership, particularly the DPWH unit in Pangasinan is getting due to differences with certain officials thereat. The news says that a Mayor in a particular city criticized DPWH over alleged non-coordination of projects like the current asphalt overlay project in three sections of national roads located in Dagupan city.

The mayor purported that the people of Speaker de Venecia are putting pressure on DPWH engineers for the prosecution of projects that, according to him, were impractical and a waste of money. The mayor threatened that he might just move to stop the ongoing civil works in question. District Engineer Rodolfo Dion of the second Pangasinan engineering district said he wrote a letter to the mayor about the asphalt overlay in barangays Bolosan, Tapuac and Mayombo on receipt of an allotment advice for the project worth some P30 million. The letter received by the mayor’s office was available in duplicate at his office — evidence that he informed the mayor of about the project. Dion also requested the city engineer’s office to assign personnel to help superviss the asphalt paving that began in Bolosan last week. In a letter to DPWH, the mayor questioned the project pointing out that the city needs more flood mitigation measures, adding that the three areas-Bolosan, Tapuac and Mayombo- are flood prone. He also maintained that the agency should consult the city about proposed projects.

The mayor also said that DPWH officials – the regional director and the district engineer concerned – are helpless in dealing with people of de Venecia. “Walang kuwenta yang regional at district directors, di sila makapalag sa mga bata ni Speaker” (The (DPWH) regional and district directors are worthless; they can’t put up to the aides of the (House) Speaker), the mayor said. DPWH defended the asphalt overlay saying it was a measure to prolong the lifespan of the concrete roads. He noted that these road sections already showed some cracks. Asked why the project costs that much compared with overlay projects by the provincial government, Dion said that they are going to pave not only the main road but also the shoulders and also paint the center line and the edge.

OBSERVATIONS

In 1992, myself and a few others, advocated the establishment of an inter-agency Philippine Safety Development Council (PSDC). This project was re-proposed several times over that Malacañang asked in the jocular if there was a shortage of jobs that I was trying to create one as a niche for jobless persons like myself. Fortunately for us, the proposal that was re-proposed over and over, became a reality when it was approved by Congress into law, but renamed into the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) under the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC).

Then again, unfortunately the then Budget Secretary, Ms. Boncodin, threw the law out of her office saying she had no money for its implementation. Kindly allow me then to point out some observations from the view of a safety advocate:

1. The so-called flood mitigation measures the mayor is talking about had already been initiated eleven years ago by our NGO, Centre di Humanis et Societas, Inc. in cooperation with the Pangasinan NGO Network, Inc. in a MOA with the Provincial Government. Except that our NGO was a self-financed affair and PNGONet also did not have any funds on its own. The MOA covered seeding, treeplanting, other related activities that could redound to increasing the capacity of the province’s ecosystem to eliminate flooding. This MOA between the Provincial Government and our NGOs group was in response to the problem that the siltation and downloading of billions of metric tons of lahar / ash fall deposits in the Eastern Pangasinan area and other areas that similarly received these deposits from the Mt. Pinatubo eruption in 1991 were perceived in 1992 to be a future source of looding / flash flooding in Pangasinan.

This happened because no one, despite Pres. Ramos’ being President at the time, listened to us. The MOA was also in response to the threat of Pangasinan’s possible desertification within 25 years that was forecast in 1983 by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST). This was unnecessarily and unfortunately accelerated by the Pinatubo eruption.

2. Given the foregoing, the occurrence of flooding and the destruction of roads by floods cannot be solved by the mayor’s tirades against DPWH.

3. With the fortunate happenstance that HE PGMA is partly from Pangasinan, the problem about the perennial going away of cement and asphalt roads can holistically be resolved by engaging various sectors in the province (at the behest of Malacañnang) to finally implement — even at a rather late time — the project we envisioned and worked to accomplish between 1992-1995 — stop / prevent the flooding at the root of the problem: the billion ton lahar / ash deposit at the mountain ranges bordering and also within Pangasinan. Certainly, there will always be benefits for advocating this or that construction project. That is a given, which is why the mayor is hitting DPWH over stale issues. It is sad however, that these people are creating fuss over small money, petty change, when the real challenge is stopping the flooding. I wonder what flood mitigation measures he is talking about?  Building dikes?

I was in the area (the people of Gen. Isleta [actually those that he merely inherited and one that he brought in - a retired colonel] threw me away to that area saying why [this boy] loves the people of Region III why don’t we throw him there?) when large portions of the hills/mountains in Sison fell down and reshaped the riverine systems, destroyed the manner of cropping of rice and corn in these areas and the banks will not even lend the farmers money. Imagine Your Honor, if you were one of the farmers there at the time? I was there when the flash floods started coming to Sta. Barbara, other municipalities and inundated the Bayambang Rivers with ash (not soil nor sand now water). Imagine Your Honor if your livelihood depended on these ecosystems at the time? It was not a wonderful sight to behold.

RECOMMENDATIONS

May I respectfully recommend, Your Honor, that you task a team from your good office to study the merits of proposing to one or two Malacañang Cabinet Clusters to provide a solution to the perennial flooding / flash flooding in Pangasinan. It can also be applied to Region III as well or any other area so affected. It is a simple weed seeding project, using light planes for high ground areas, tree planting for mid-high ground zones and more tree planting for the lower zones. Other engineering solutions may also be applied to the problem from a holistic perspective. A different civil works paradigm may however be used in the light of this proposed integrated problem resolution project. It will cost millions, but it will have a more long-lasting effect. It will also be Your Honor’s legacy in Region I and III.

Moreover, DPWH need not go it alone. Remember, the US love Region III and perhaps even Region I. China loves the both regions. Japan might want to help too. What is all the foreign funding there for, specially with scientific approaches like this one and the threat of large earthquakes causing huge landslides now at the corner?  How many good Pangasinenses are in DPWH?  I believe they care too about the area.  I think you will succeed in putting some finality into this mess.

Respectfully yours,

Writernetwork

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I don’t really think that the Information Officer is blind, hard of understanding or wanted to follow the simplest route, not show the letter to Sec. DPWH and be a good girl by resolving the query i submitted on her own level. Which means, she will not necessarily take into considerations the fact that flash flooding is a serious problem and has recently been plaguing even the home province of Sec. Ebdane itself – Zambales.

There was however, in a matter of weeks, an announcement by Malacañang anyhow, that it is launching a greening program in the country.  One wonders if it will do something to the recommendation one had submitted to Sec. Ebdane?

It is noted for the record that the findings about the billion ton volcanic deposits that created heavy siltation and a potential for massive flooding in the affected areas was made by foreign scientists from Europe who conducted long-running research onsite in the said regions.It is noted for the record that the findings about the billion ton volcanic deposits that created heavy siltation and a potential for massive flooding in the affected areas was made by foreign scientists from Europe who conducted long-running research onsite in the said regions.If indeed Ms. Pilorin merely responded in the way she told us above and the suggestions for appropriate action by the proper Cabinet Cluster, that is not good.  During the time when I was active in government, there was a PALS network wherein issues were passed between and among the various agencies in the entire bureucracy.  No issue was allowed to just get stale in the computers or desks of any one agency.  That was what the PALS network was for, coordination, cooperation, fast resolution and response to queries, issues, problems and especially flash points that needed urgent action.  Sustainable bureaucracy seems a long time from now with people in the Service like Ms. Pilorin… unless levelheaded officers in the government initiate some changes.I most sincerely wish and pray that Ms. Pilorin did not do the stupid thing of deleting my email or having it printed and hiding the letter or throwing it in her trash can because unfortunately, that is the unforgiveable thing many government bureaucrats usually do.I sincerely hope and pray the right Cluster in OP will see it and be able to act with dispatch on it now that more tropical storms are coming into the country.This, plus the fact that there is another explosion that has been brewing for quite some time, this time affecting the Bicol Region and posing a threat of creating another billion tons of unwanted deposits at another set of mountain ranges.

If indeed Mayon explodes, the country will have to suffer another round of flash floodings south of Luzon and who knows what other problems else?