In my boyhood, there was an artesian well built within the compound of the convent of the Roman Catholic church in Candijay, Bohol. I used to fetch water there. On the concrete floor of the water facility, there was written a Spanish line – “Mas vale tarde que nunca”. One day, I asked my father, who, in his lifetime, spoke fluent Spanish (he also wrote literature in that language and in Latin) for the meaning.
I remember that Spanish line when I saw, on television, some of our government officials riding on a watercraft, the other day. They approached the Guadalupe river from the sea. Their announced mission was to inspect the river and find out what should be done to prevent floods.
In few past occasions, I wrote on the need to clear our rivers (not just Guadalupe) and esteros of all sorts of impediments. Many of my friends, concerned with the hastened death of our rivers, brought this topic to me. They described their observation is language that alarmed me. My validation trips horrified me even more. They saw that the beds were heavily silted. There were huge amounts of garbage that clogged the waterways. On top of that situation, many structures sprouted along the banks. Some were even built, on stilts, on the rivers themselves.
This action of our government, apparently, is many months late. Tarde. Any plan to dredge the rivers should have been done in the long dry spell we experienced. We had more than five months when the rains did not come and the volume of the water running in our rivers was incredibly small. In that state, the dredging would have been faster and a lot easier and the cost certainly, would have been much smaller.
The television news, the other day, did not reveal upon whose directive the inspection was done. Yes, Cebu City Councilor Bob Cabarrubias was focused. But, he did not say it was his own initiative to clear the Guadalupe river of all sorts of debris. Neither did the reporter mention of higher authority from whom the councilor took instructions. It could not have come from His Honor, Cebu City Mayor Tomas R. Osmena because he had also been reported, on the same news day, to have vacated his office. The video footage showed the office of the outgoing mayor practically empty.
It was improbable that Mayor Osmena thought, this late in his term, about such environmental issue. I remember during the election period that his sister, erstwhile candidate for mayor, claimed to have been forced to run for the position because her brother failed and neglected to deliver many other services to the Cebuanos. Madame Georgia was explicit in citing the failure of the city to clean our rivers.
Going by that elimination process, I assume that this late government action of inspecting the Guadalupe river must have come from the mayor-elect. Perhaps, the Honorable Vice Mayor Michael Rama, is starting to consider the other basic needs of the city. In the administration of his predecessor, only the South Real Properties have consumed his attention and none in the officialdom dared to talk of other issues.
There is no doubt that this action is late. But mas vale tarde que nunca. It will be more expensive to do this project this late. Nevertheless, it has got to be done. It has better be. The rains are expected to come and the floods are not far behind when our rivers are clogged.
More importantly, this move of the incoming mayor carries more meaning that what it reveals. There is more to it than just clearing Guadalupe river this late. This is refreshing. It indicates that he is ready to step out of the shadows of his predecessor. His decisions may not be bound to the words of the outgoing chief executive. For instance, the new city administration will not just pour all of its resources on the South Real Properties. Those which Mayor Osmena failed to do, the successor is, by this indication of a late action, about to change. Wow!