Why it that one of the Philippines’ largest business conglomerates is is doing a far better job than local government units when it comes to flood control?
We’re sure that this is one questions that residents of subdivisions that had been hit by the recent floods have been asking LGUs.
This, after a report that the “Better Rivers PH” initiative of San Miguel Corporation (SMC), has so far cleared over half a million tons of silt and solid waste from three major rivers in Laguna province.
This Mega Manila-wide initiative, launched five years ago, has been touted as one of the main reasons why flooding along some areas in San Pedro and Biñan cities weren’t as severe as in the past.
Of course, the river networks that SMC had been dredging over the past two years or so is only part of a wider network of waterways that, as this newsmagazine had pointed out in the past weeks, needed urgent attention by local governments.
It’s laughable at best (and infuriating as well) that it had to take executive orders by LGUs to prod other local officials into doing what SMC had actually been doing since the height of the pandemic.
Sure, thanks are in order to the SMC for going beyond the bare minimum in the ongoing drive to combat the increasingly unpredictable weather.
But for LGUs to thank the private sector for doing what should be their duties in the first place can already be considered an insult to their constituents.
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