Examine Cebu’s drainage

Typhoon Sendong hit Iligan and Cagayan de Oro cities. It was especially devastating in Cagayan de Oro, where two major rivers overflowed after continuous rain. As of this writing, more than 600 people were confirmed dead and about 2,000 were displaced in Cagayan de Oro. About 100 persons were confirmed dead in Iligan.

The disaster hit the two cities at 2 a.m., when everybody was sleeping and nobody was prepared for the typhoon. Videos and pictures show that the ensuing damage is worse than the destruction brought by Typhoon Ondoy in Metro Manila more than three years ago. Dumaguete City, too, was badly hit by the storm but luckily our own Cebu was spared. I was informed that our local government units prepared early for the storm.

Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama and the City Council should seriously look into our infrastructure especially along our rivers and the drainage system to avert situations like what happened to Cagayan de Oro and Iligan cities. Public safety should not be compromised by partisan political interests of some group. I hope that what happened to Cagayan de Oro and Iligan would serve as a warning to our quarreling political leaders to get their act together for the interest and welfare of the people.

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I agree with the position taken by the College of Law of the University of San Carlos, that the impeachment complaint against Chief Justice Renato Corona is not an affront to the judiciary but only a call to accountability for Corona himself.

I do not agree that the impeachment will create a constitutional crisis. Impeachment is precisely the remedy put in place in the Constitution to avert a crisis. I think people should be sober about the case against Corona. He is being given the chance to defend himself against charges leveled against him. It’s a lot of baloney to say the process will undermine the independence of the judiciary. The complaint is filed against Corona alone and not against the judiciary as an institution.

Corona should focus on preparing for his defense instead of engaging the President in name-calling, which doesn’t help his cause. The President has a high popularity rating and his anti-corruption advocacy has caught the imagination of our people. That is why there is no groundswell of support for Corona. Besides, lawyers have a valid complaint against the decisions of the Supreme Court especially its flip-flopping in conferring city status on 16 localities.

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The Educational Reform Program or the K+12 of President Benigno Aquino III is in the pipeline and ready for implementation. The program, from what I gathered from USC president Fr. Dionisio Miranda, will be implemented to comply with the Bologna Accord and the Washington Agreement so that our educational system will have, from the present six years of basic education and four years of high school education, a compulsory kindergarten and grade 7 plus two years of senior high.

The intention of the program is to produce graduates who are already employable after finishing two years of senior high. This allows graduates from senior high to get hired unlike the situation today wherein many college graduates can’t find any job in the industry because they hold degrees that are not needed.

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To all our readers, wishing you all a Merry Christmas!