Mindanao Times

Davao’s share from the ‘Build, build, build’

- BY VIC N. SUMALINOG

OUR thanks to the City

Environmen­t and Natural

Resources Office (CENRO) for collecting the household garbage in our subdivisio­n at Pag-ibig Homes in

Catalunan Grande yesterday.

For the last few weeks the collection by CENRO contracted trucks was very erratic. In fact there was no garbage collection last week. Supposedly the truck would have hauled the refuse the other Tuesday. It did not. So the residents were hoping the garbage truck would come last Friday. Again, it did not. So the garbage from the subdivisio­n households that were placed inside bags and other containers piled up along the roads.

What made things worse was that last Saturday night rains fell like crazy flooding the subdivisio­n roads and washing away some refuse bags piling up on the side. Then, the day after when the weather was okay, stray cats were on the loose competing to scratch open the garbage bag after sniffing the smell of food inside.

In other words, some of the subdivisio­n’s household refuse were in total mess that residents had to fix them again to ensure that everything will be collected by the CENRO men.

Anyhow, the residents of the subdivisio­n are happy that at least, despite the erratic schedule of collection, the CENRO truck still came preventing the garbage from stinking.

Again, thank you CENRO.

**********************

We did not know until last Monday that there was another incident that in a great way dampened the frenzy of the celebratio­n of Kadayawan Festival. And it happened during the supposed penultimat­e night of the festival – Saturday, August 17.

Based on television news accounts complete with footages, the different areas of the city where several events were held and droves of people were in attendance or expected to witness, were actually submerged in kneedeep water. The entire length of Roxas Blvd. where food stool operators were anticipati­ng avalanche of customers during that Saturday night, were given the biggest frustratio­n in their lives.

The rains were extremely hard coupled with strong winds that blew the roofs of food tents and drove ambulant peddlers seeking for shelter. Hence, the Roxas food-drinks attraction last Saturday was almost non-existent.

On the other hand, many local and foreign tourists who came to witness Davao City by night during such happy celebratio­n as Kadayawan ended up missing their expectatio­n. The bad weather that Saturday night was just too much for them to contend with.

Good thing the different activities during day time gave them substantia­l enjoyment that perhaps was worth the money they spent in coming to the city for the Kadayawan feast.

They might have gone home with the thought that they still have a lot more to come back for next year’s celebratio­n.

Aside from the multi-billion peso coastal highway that the national government is constructi­ng in Davao City there are also other major road projects that are cutting across the city’s rural communitie­s.

We have the by-pass road that will traverse the Bunawan-Cabantian-Tigatto-Matina Pangi-Catalunan Grande-Catalunan Pequeno down south to Toril. The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is also working on the concreting of another road connecting the third and second district of the city using the route from Calinan to Barangay Pangan, to Lampianao, then to Callawa. This same road could connect to San Roque, Panabo City.

Still another diversion highway is the one from Lacson in Calinan passing through Lamanan, Megcauayan, Malabog down to either Lasang in Davao City’s second district or direct to Panabo City in Davao del Norte.

We also learned that the barangay road from Talandang in Tugbok district going to Bonggan is also expanded and concreted and more than halfway completed. And there are talks that a bridge will be constructe­d to connect

Bonggan to Mandug.

All these infrastruc­ture projects in Davao City, we assume, are part of the Duterte adminbistr­ation’s “Build, build, build” program.

We are hoping that all these will be completed by the end of the incumbent President’s term. Otherwise the remaining uncomplete­d infrastruc­tures will end up Duterte’s “white elephants” because in all likelihood, the new administra­tion will have its own priorities.

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