Pulong-pulongs and addressing the floods, same systems

The last election period was a lot longer than what the law really allowed. In the guise of giving public awareness programs, both contending political groups, Team Rama and Type O started holding their barangay sorties as early as May of last year, with thrice a week frequency. So, instead of the usual 45-day campaign period, the de facto electoral season stretched for a year. They called those activities as "pulong-pulong".

A pulong-pulong would entail huge expense. Let us consider that a night of such activity is not limited to one venue. Each evening that the candidates' groups go to the barangay, they always schedule at least three sites. Ordinarily, these venues are situated within the barangay, the objective being to project an impact but they are held not too far from one another in order to maximize the exposure. Given that kind of scheduling, we can readily conclude that each of the opposing groups had the organization that planned where to stage the pulong-pulong. That was one part of the expenditure.

Another component of the expense was the materiel needed. These ranged from the light and sound systems, stage, chairs, backdrop. Each venue required separate materiel because the pulong-pulong was done in rotation. The candidates were divided into teams and they were supposed to start at the same time with each team, after completing their speeches, going to the next venue.

The candidates did not go to the campaign sites by their lonesome. They always had a retinue of people with different assignments. Some were tasked to provide security, while others had the assignment of distributing propaganda. I also observed that some candidates brought along their entertainers designed to bring the crowd together for the speeches of the candidates. This entailed another outlay.

I am not trying to enumerate what we already observed in the campaign period. What I intend to do here is to show that organization wise, our candidates were very meticulous. In the pursuit of their objectives, they were thorough. Their attention to details was important because they knew that a failure in the organization meant a slow down in their campaign.

Because the focus of our leaders the whole year thru was to convince us to vote for them, they cast aside what to me was one important part of their public lives -preparing for the rainy season. According to the weather bureau, we expect rains to come in, at most, two weeks. Pagasa warned us that in the month of June alone, we might have three storms coming. When heavy rains come, floods are not far behind.

This is an urgent matter. Our esteros, rivers and other waterways are heavily silted. Large deposits of waste have been accumulated. In that condition, they cannot absorb the volume of water that typhoons bring. They needed to be dredged to minimize the occurrence of floods. Yet, the two-week gap announced by the weather specialists, between now and the onset of the rains, is frighteningly short.

But, again let us look at how our candidates managed their pulong-pulongs. They can replicate what they efficiently did in the campaign and in the highest interest of public welfare, adopt the same applicable system in trying to address this forecast flooding problem. His Honor, Cebu City Mayor Michael L. Rama, with the fresh mandate to govern our city should take the lead. By comparison, the resources of the government are more massive than the campaign organization of Team Rama. All these are at his control and I am sure nobody would mind if he dispatches them to serve public need. The reelected mayor should weave the manpower of the city government into an effective corps to help our city prevent floods.

The councilors who have just been reelected, even if they belong to Type O, should not pose an obstacle to this effort. They owe it to us to assist the mayor in doing what can be done to protect the city residents in anticipation of the heavy rains. In fact, if in studying their pulong-pulong organization they find a system that is most appropriate, they should bring it to the attention of the mayor, who should not begrudge applying it.

This may sound iffy, but this can be done.

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