Bulacan remembers late ex. Sen. Blas Ople on his 99th birthday

CITY OF MALOLOS—Bulacan Gov. Daniel Fernando on Tuesday credited the late senator and foreign affairs secretary Blas Ople for first conceiving the idea of a mega dike coastal highway flood control project that would address the perennial flooding not only in Bulacan but also in the neighboring provinces of Pampanga and Bataan.

The project, which stretches from Metro Manila to Bataan and is now undergoing a feasibility study, was a brainchild of the late senator, said Fernando as he led the honoring of the late statesman on his 99th birth anniversary at the Bulacan Provincial Capitol grounds on Tuesday.

Fernando led the wreath-laying activity at the bust of the late senator in front of the Gat Blas Ople Building within the Provincial Capitol Compound.

The governor, along with Bataan Governor Jose Enrique Garcia and Pampanga Vice Governor Dennis Pineda, had proposed the mega dike flood control project to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in 2024 as the last defense of the three provinces against the perennial and devastating tidal waters or high tide from Manila Bay.

READ: Bulacan flood control works get ‘fraud audit’

He said the mega dike project was an original concept proposed by Ople decades ago.

Ople, considered a modern-day hero of Bulacan, already perceived more than 40 years ago the worst flooding that high tide brings to many towns in Bulacan, particularly to his native town of Hagonoy, which lies along the shores of Manila Bay.

“It was then, during the time of late former President Marcos Sr., when Ka Blas proposed the mega dike coastal highway flood control project,” he said. “It did not prosper then. But today, together with my fellow two governors in Central Luzon, we deem his brainchild as the only remaining solution to combat our worst nightmare—the high tide flooding,” he told officials and residents inside the Nicanor Abelardo auditorium right after the wreath laying.

The feasibility study for the mega dike project started last year.

Susanne Laurie “Estelle” Osorio, grandchild of Ople, thanked Bulacan officials for the continued honor to her grandfather for his contributions to the Filipino people. 

The former senator was also honored as the Father of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) and the Philippine Labor Code.

Osorio remembered her grandfather as the son of a boat repairman from the coastal town of Hagonoy, Bulacan. Despite being an outstanding student, he would have graduated from elementary school barefoot if not for a pair of shoes borrowed from a neighbor since his parents could not afford to buy him shoes, she said.

But it was Ople’s perseverance in life that later made him an icon. She said Ople once had worked as a “shipper” (kargador) at the pier of Port Area, Manila. “He became an icon of a poor man’s success in life, not only for himself but for the whole nation.” 

The labor secretary who served the longest in government, Ople, was behind the 13th-month pay policy that all workers continue to enjoy today, Osorio said.

Osorio is the daughter of Ople’s youngest daughter, the late Department of Migrant Worker (DMW) Secretary Susan “Toots” Ople. She now heads the Ople Policy Center, which her late mother had founded to continue to help Filipino migrant workers after her father died in 2003.

She said that she and the whole Ople family hoped that the life story and success of her grandfather would continue to inspire the Filipino people, particularly the youth./coa