Tall tale of the tail...

…DIKE, THAT is.

Just last May, it was oh-so gloriously proclaimed: The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in Region III completed the repair and rehabilitation of the tail dike which breaching at the height of the habagat or southwest monsoons in August last year submerged in floodwaters the towns of Minalin and Sto. Tomas and southern parts of the City of San Fernando.

“The tail dike was designed to protect the towns from floodwaters coming from  upstream. The towns affected by habagat can rest assured of the integrity (of the repair) of the dike to prevent another flooding.” So one Engr. Luisito Sibug, chief of the construction division of DPWH-3, reported to Gov. Lilia G. Pineda at the  Governor’s Staff House in Clark, detailing that at least 102 meters of the breached section of the dike in San Fernando and 96 meters in Sto.Tomas was completed as of April, costing P27.8 million.

Sibug furthered that engineering interventions complementary to the rehabilitation of the tail dike were also undertaken. These included the development of a “pilot channel with slope protection” of the Gugu Creek in Sapang Pari to Labuan with a length of 1.2 kilometers costing the DPWH P34 million, to include the widening and desilting of the area.

 “This will prevent the water current from targeting the newly constructed CSF-Sto.Tomas-Minalin tail dike,” Sibug noted.

(Factual accounts are the above, with me having authored the news story that carried them, published here on May 28, 2013.)

“Considered as the last line of defense against inundations during heavy rains, some 96 meters wide of the breached section of the tail dike specifically along Sto. Tomas-San Fernando areas, and 102 meters at Minalin side were already restored and armored.” So one Antonio Molano Jr., regional director of DPWH-3, said, as quoted in a May 27, 2013 post in Dredging Today.com  titled “Philippines: DPWH Completes Tail Dike in Pampanga.”

The poor flooded folk assuaged: “Rest assured that DPWH shall continue to perform dredging of the rivers and water tributaries especially in Minalin to allay fears of a repeat of last year’s devastation.”

Headlined the Philippine Information Agency: “Tail dike reconstruction, an answered prayer to Kapampangans.” And hosannas were sung to the DPWH for a job well done.  

Came Typhoon Maring and the habagat last week.

Past 5 a.m. Tuesday, August 20, the tail dike overflowed at its Minalin section  unleashing floodwater to 100 hectares of fishponds and about 1,000 homes, Mayor Edgar Flores reported.

The following day, Flores raised the SOS as the 20-meter breached of the previous day widened to more than 40 meters, shifting “70 percent” of the waters from Gugu River toward nearby Sto. Tomas and onward to the City of San Fernando.

Mass evacuations followed, Sto. Tomas and Minalin were isolated, the capital city’s major roads were rendered impassable. Sufficed it to say of last week’s devastation. 

As it was in August 2012 with habagat so it is in August 2013 with habagat again, this time compounded by Typhoon Maring.

So what happened to all those affirmations and assurances of the DPWH meant “to allay fears of a repeat of last year’s devastation”?

“I don’t know if we are to be blamed for [the disaster].” Thus, Molano, as quoted by the Inquirer’s intrepid Tonette Orejas.

Yeah, having done its job of completing the repair and rehabilitation of the tail dike, Molano’s DPWH could not be blamed for the breach.

That could only be an act of God. Or the devil did it.

 Yeah, not the DPWH.

 Moronic.