Alarmed by reports on the damages and sorry state of the mega dike in Bacolor town, Pampanga Govenor Lilia G. Pineda personally inspected yesterday the said structure even as she ordered the immediate closure of its affected portion and emphasized the urgency oftransferring the families of informal settlers.
Pineda was joined by concerned officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways – Mt. Pinatubo Rehabilitation Project Monitoring Office (DPWH MPRPMO), provincial board members, local municipal and barangay officials and local mediamen.
The members of the inspection team saw for themselves that the west lateral portion of the dike along barangays Sta. Barbara and Balas was heavily damaged. The said portion was regularly used by quarry truck drivers in transporting their loads.
The Governor ordered the immediate closure of the said portion of the megadike as well as its early repair and rehabilitation.
At the same time, she expressed dismay over the 20 families of informal settlers who illegally resided and indiscriminately dumped their garbage along the area without regard for the destruction and violations they were doing.
The Governor was emphatic about the violations of these long-time informal settlers who were a mixture of Bicolanos, Tagalogs and Kapampangans as she admonished them for their violations.
“Sinalahula natin, di na tayo bibigyan ng assistance,” she said, referring to their squatting and dumping of garbage in the area.
To this, Bacolor Mayor Jomar Hizon suggested to bring the said families to barangay Tinajero for relocation.
The dike was constructed through a loan agreement with the Japan International Cooperating Agency (JICA) as an infrastructure mitigation measure to protect the province from the onslaught offloodings and lahar flows in the aftermath of Mt. Pinatubo eruption.
Since its completion, the megadike has served as a convenient route to motorists and quarry truck haulers as it connects Pampanga towns and facilitates travel all over Central Luzon.
The JICA people are expected to conduct an inspection and assessment of the megadike structure eight days after the said visit of the provincial team.
Immediately after the on-site inspection, the Governor and some provincial board members, engineers from the DPWH-MPRPMO led by Engr. Lita Manalo, mayors of concerned municipalities in the province and other local officials held a conference with the experts from JICA to discuss pertinent issues and problems relative to the project.
During the said conference, it was also reported that the 9.6 kilometer stretch of the tail dike along the City of San Fernando, Minalin and Sto. Tomas towns is also in need of immediate repair.
The conferring officials were in full agreement that priority should be placed on the urgency of having the megadike rehabilitated and protected from any form of damage or destruction at the soonest possible time.
(Pampanga PIO)
