Council okays P1 million for Pasil riverside walk

The City Council has recently approved the appropriation of P1.02 million for the construction of a riverside walk at Forbes Bridge in barangay Pasil.

Mayor Tomas Osmeña has also given his approval to charge the amount to be used in the project to the Guadalupe River account.

Councilor Joey Daluz III has sponsored a resolution seeking the approval of his colleagues in the council of the proposed program of works and estimates in the amount of P1.02 million.

Daluz said that the riverside walk will showcase the development of the three-meter easement in the Guadalupe River.

The 58-meter proposed riverside walk will stretch from Forbes Bridge downstream to barangay Pasil. It can be very useful to residents since they can use it to go to other areas of the barangay without passing by the road.

Councilor Augustus Pe, Jr., said the project will "showcase what we intend to happen," adding that it is the result of the riverwalk that they did in 2004 in their aim to develop Guadalupe River and promote its protection.

However, Pe said that the project took quite a long time to be realized because there is need to let the affected families understand and have them relocated to another place.

But Vice Mayor Michael Rama, who sits as the chairman of the city council, said that the people should have been prepared because they knew that the project was coming since they already conducted a river walk three years ago.

He also expressed disappointment on the sorry state of the Guadalupe River, saying this already has become an open septic tank.

He explained that people should understand that riverbanks belong to the state and it has the right to rehabilitate and protect them.

In 2004, Pe and Daluz, together with councilor Edwin Jagmoc and some of department heads waded through a three-kilometer stretch of the river to "make sound and justified assessment on how to rehabilitate" it.

Wearing boots, they trudged along the river where they were greeted by piles and piles of garbage and different kinds of waste. - Wenna A. Berondo