Dammed If You Do...

The poor manager of the San Roque Dam got sacked the other day. He told the media that he was relieved to be relieved because he was afraid he would not be able to function correctly because of all the anxiety from the intrigue and criticism. He is being blamed for the flood during the remarkable Pepeng typhoon which made a u-turn and PARKED in the northern part of Luzon for about a week. It brought a lot of rain so you can imagine how all the dams were at critical levels hence the release of the water.

Sadly, a lot of property was destroyed and many lives were lost especially in the mountains where there were numerous landslides. It will take years to rebuild many towns. Some will not be rebuilt ever again. Vast areas of agricultural land were devastated making the threat of food shortage very real. People are slowly picking up the pieces as relief and recovery programs are underway.

The poor manager of San Roque dam was interviewed shortly after the deluge. He said he was extremely frightened during the storm but he had to weigh the consequences and choose the lesser evil. He said he decided to release water that will cause a flood rather than not release and risk the collapse of the dam that will wipe out the whole province of Pangasinan. He stands by his decision. The man-made situation could not be left up to God. It called for someone's decision. He decided. He got the axe.

Even more sadly, the media is not giving a balanced report on the matter. Why don't they enlighten the people especially the ones who were most affected about what could have happened had the water not been released? Why just yack away about how that was everything that caused the devastation? Why not give credit to the power companies who are making adjustments according to the different weather conditions and global warming? Why incite anger in people who are already distressed and traumatized? Why call for the dam to be shut down? What will happen if it were shut down? Why sensationalize instead of pacify?

Personally, I think we should be dammed.