‘Sinking’ Iloilo flyover

By Alex P. Vidal

“When you don’t take a stand against corruption you tacitly support it.” -Kamal Haasan

WE hope taxpayers’ money wasn’t wasted or stolen in the controversial P680-million flyover project in Ungka, Iloilo, which was ordered closed 12 days after it was opened on September 6, 2022 after three piers or foundations were reported to be “sinking.”

If the infrastructure project, funded during the time of former Senator Franklin Drilon, was properly built, there was no way it would incur any problem on its foundations.

Should there be a probe, first it must be determined if the project conformed to standards set by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPHW).

Was the amount or quantity of cement bags used in the project sufficient?

Did the materials conform to DPWH specifications? And so on and so forth. Let’s hope the materials were not overpriced and of poor quality.

In any infra project, a Program of Work lists details of a DPWH project, including the cost of the project and a breakdown of expenditures. There should have been no deviations from the programs of work.

Probers should tap experts who can best spot the difference.

We are confident they can help give justice to the “sinking” taxpayers money.

The flyover was abruptly closed to motorists on Sept 18 after complaints mounted on the vertical movement, as well as reports of flooding at the top of the structure, the Daily Guardian has reported.

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The propaganda perpetrated by Christian parents many years ago

looks so effortless until today.

An innocent child would swallow the propaganda, “a fantasy peddled by generations of Christmas cards to divert attention away from what is, undoubtedly, the most spectacular research and development outfit this planet has ever seen,” Roger Highfield asserted in the Physics of Christmas.

Highfield differed on the view that, apart from the occasional slip up with drunken reindeer, narrow chimneys, and blizzards, Santa Clause manages to deliver millions of gifts on Christmas Eve, maintaining his smile and composure all the while.

Santa’s support team: a few reindeer and a handful of diligent elves.

“I have good reason to believe that Santa has drawn on the benefits of centuries of inventions and insights generated by a scientific effort that would make the likes of Albert Einstein weep with admiration,” writes Highfield.

Somewhere in the North Pole, or perhaps buried in a vast complex under Gemiler Island, original home of Saint Nicholas, there must be an army of scientists experimenting with the latest in high-temperature materials, genetic computing technologies, and warped space-time geometries, all united by a single purpose: making millions of children happy each and every Christmas.

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“Put yourself in Santa’s boots,” Highfield suggests: “How does he know where children live and what gifts they want? How can he fly in any weather, circle the globe overnight, carry millions of pounds of cargo, and make silent rooftop landings with pinpoint accuracy?”

Some years ago Spy magazine examined these issues in an article that has since proliferated across the Internet.

The piece concluded that Santa required 214,200 reindeer and, with his huge mass of presents, encountered “enormous air resistance, heating

the reindeer up in the same fashion as a spacecraft re-entering the earth’s atmosphere.”

In short, the article concluded, the reindeer “will burst into flame almost instantaneously, creating deafening sonic booms in their wake.”

The article continued: “The entire reindeer team will be vaporized within 4.26 thousandths of a second. Santa, meanwhile, will be subjected to forces 17,500.06 times greater than gravity…If Santa ever did deliver presents on Christmas Eve, he’s dead now.”

The point is that Santa is now dead.

The books say Santa delivers presents every Christmas Eve, as reliably as Rudolf’s nose is red.

And he overcomes the kinds of problems outlined above with the aid of out-of-this-world technology.

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