A ‘small’ solon’s giant leap

By Alex P. Vidal

“Hope springs eternal, even for hopeless crusades.”—Kayleigh McEnany

THE “small” man, Kabataan Partylist Rep. Raoul Manuel has beaten to the draw his “bigger” fellow Ilonggo colleagues in the House of Representatives when he became the first congressman to declare an intention to seek for a formal House inquiry on the controversial P680-million Iloilo flyover in Ungka, Pavia, Iloilo.

He made the giant leap when everyone affected by the project’s delay and gradual deterioration was getting hopeless and melancholic each day owing to the apparent apathy and lethargic attitude of some high government officials who refused to make any drastic move to solve the turmoil.

Manuel, 28, also did what other Iloilo lawmakers failed to do: conduct an ocular inspection on the project and confer with the residents and jeepney drivers plying routes in that area on January 8, according to a consolidated report by the Daily Guardian.

The solon also examined the beams and girders underneath the flyover as well as its carriageway atop the structure. He was prepared to file a House resolution after the visit and consultations, added the Daily Guardian report on January 9.

Manuel was one of the Iloilo solons requested by the Pavia Sanggunian Bayan in a resolution introduced by SB Member Pyt Trimanez in December 2022 asking to hold a congressional investigation on the multi-million project after its opening was delayed.

Experts have noticed several defects in the flyover’s foundation after the huge project was reported to be “sinking.”

Manuel’s gesture became a whiff of fresh air for some Ilonggos who have aired frustrations and revulsion over the DPWH’s apparent failure to perform its job and safeguard the taxpayers’ money from possible negligence and incompetence of the contractors.

None of Manuel’s colleagues in the 19^th Congress included in the Pavia resolution joined him in the ocular visit covered by the Iloilo press.

Except for Manuel, they haven’t expressed any interest, so far, to hold a House inquiry on the flyover which was supposed to be touted as a major solution to the growing traffic snarl in the highway.

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In a phone conversation with the Daily Guardian, Manuel said, “[The resolution] is to urge the appropriate committee in the House of Representatives to investigate the Ungka Flyover project. We received lots of concerns regarding the [Ungka and Aganan flyovers].”

In his opinion, the matter “should be a huge national concern, along with the nearby Aganan Flyover in Pavia, given that these are projects by the Department of Public Works and Highways, which meant that it involved nationally collected taxes,” according to the Daily Guardian report.

He added: “On our end, this is a big issue for Ilonggos, but at the same time this issue has national relevance because people’s taxes were spent on this, and what we want regarding [infrastructure] projects, wherever they may be, they must be helpful to the people and should not worsen the problems.

“We want to know what happened to the flyover. We’re talking about P680 million, which is a big amount and should not be wasted. For ordinary citizens, there is a helpless feeling because the flyover is already there, but people need to do a U-turn [at the President Corazon Aquino Avenue]. The purpose of these projects is the comfort of the lives of our [commuting] public. We hope that this inquiry would shed light on how we should move forward with this project.”

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What has happened to the Senate Bill No. 1443 or the “Plastic Bag Recycling Act” authored by the late former Senator Miriam Defensor-Santago?

The bill urged department stores, boutiques and grocery owners to promote the recycling of plastic bags to cushion the impact of plastics in the environment.

The the bill, the stores can sell reusable bags to their customers to replace single-use plastic or paper bags.

The amount of plastic bags as garbage every year has become a global environmental problem. Around four to five trillion plastic bags are reportedly used worldwide, and billions of these bags end up as trash.

Almost all of these bags are also non-biodegradable and non-biodegradable plastic bags reportedly take from 500 to 1,000 years to disintegrate.

The used plastic bags contaminate soil and waterways, and enter the food chain when animals accidentally ingest them and plastic bags that end up in the ocean have been documented to harm at least 267 marine species and are specifically lethal to sea turtles.

Plastic bags are also blamed for the floods as they clog drainage systems during rainy season.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo.—Ed)