WHEN expertise is cloaked with stubborn arrogance, the result is tragedy. From the actual experience of the victims of “Ondoy” and “Pepeng,” these natural disasters may have been abnormal as all disasters are, but the releasing of water from the dams was man-made, resulting from technological miscalculations and official panic.
Even expertise must be tested and validated. There had never been an instance when water from our dams was released simultaneously; despite the horrible deluge which devastated the Calabarzon towns, the same criminal operation was repeated in Central Luzon.
Could there be a more arrogant assertion of so-called “scientific” expertise than this? What about the more fundamental issue of calculating risks in favor of human life?
The almost total lack of transparency in making life-threatening decisions was evident in the handling of these disasters. Almost all local government units complained that they were not sufficiently warned. The velocity and volume of the rampaging waters were beyond the capacity of even a superman to escape from. Had the LGUs been given the opportunity to participate in the decision to release and calibrate the outflow of water from the dams, the damage and loss of lives would have been minimized.
An immediate inquiry should be seriously conducted as soon as the floods subside, and while the experience and lessons learned are fresh, lest the “ningas cogon” mentality slide us back into the “bahala na” syndrome.
—EVA M. INCIONG, Unit 301 Union Square Condominium, 145 15th Avenue, Cubao, QC
