The Tagbilaran City residents are a concern of all - city, district and provincial officials.

The Tagbilaranons helped all of them get into their seats of power. When the city woes go from minor to major, there should be no pinpointing. They are - by the public trust placed on them - expected to cooperate, not bicker - as to how to help solve the day-to-day problem of Juan de la Cruz.

The nightmare that follows in the flooding of low-lying areas in the city after a downpour - has raised the decibels of city protests reaching heaven. If nothing is done pronto - the situation is going to get worse before it becomes better.

First, there was an engineering problem in elevating and cementing the huge CPG Avenue (first) even before the drainage outfalls initially designed for Cogon and Taloto were in place. Who will assume responsibility for designing the PERT-CPM (schedules and time tables, in layman terms) for the Project?

First District Congressman Edgar Chatto had already released the P28-million initial budget of the Project.

The second engineering fiasco was the apparent under-estimation of the Drainage Outfall cost since there were no local construction takers that caused the delay of the project. The civil works contract was, in fact, only finally awarded just this December 27 - and the DPWH "promised" to finish the drainage by this month (January). Who could be the incompetent project engineer who made the initial faulty estimate? Now the public has to suffer due to the delay.

Second, the blame should fall likewise squarely on the shoulders of the City Mayor Dan Lim or the City Executive Department because it failed to enforce an ordinance passed by the Sangunniang Panlungsod last June 2007 (sponsored by Kag. Oscar Glovasa) prohibiting the illegal connection of households and commercial establishments into the newly constructed drainage system along CPG Avenue and VP Inting Streets. The City Mayor should throw the book at these 30 or so names already published and aired over this twin-media enterprise as illegal waste disposers in the city.

A team to be headed by officers of the City Health and City Engineers Office was to make the investigation into these violations and recommended the penalties and sanctions as provided by law. What happened?

Because of this wanton neglect, when the rains came, the whole caboodle of rainwater and waste matters overflowed from the drainage and spilled into the streets and homes. Now we complain. But the waste we throw to the environment improperly will come back to pester us - as the inevitable law of karma decrees.

You burn forests (kaingin), you suffer floods and landslides and have no more lumber and vegetation to stop pollution. You throw garbage recklessly, you get flooding in the streets. You fish wantonly and illegally, the fish catch will dwindle over the years. As simple as that.

The City Engineers Office has offered to open a small canal, firetrucks to drain excess water during rain and gravel to serve as barriers to floodwaters. These are clearly palliatives - applying band aids to stop a gangrenous wound.

The Office of the City Mayor Dan Lim should go hammer and tongs against these violators. It is after all consistent with the spirit of his rule "polluters pay principle" that those environmental violators should pay for their waste neglect.

The City Mayor is expected to keep his ears open to the pleas of his constituents - and this is a matter that believe-you-us raises the hackles of city residents and raise their temperatures without the benefit of libidinal scenes.

The City Mayor is looked upon as "the father of the city" who must look for solutions and not join in the blame - tossing in issues that obviously annoy even those who voted him to office.

Assuming the DPWH meets its deadline to finish the drainage outfall by end-January, without the city waste-water treatment that City Mayor Lim had time and again committed to erect, these illegally plugged industrial and home waste dumpers (without their own waste-treatment units) will not be allowed to use the city drainage and the outfalls - only to pollute the radiant blue seawaters in Tagbilaran Bay. That is why a City Waste Water treatment facility is immensely important.

Failure to install one will be insult to injury - the other collateral casualty being tourism, the province's flagship industry.

The larger project: the waste water treatment costs between P30-80 million (hard to determine if we do not have the specifics of the facility). City Mayor Lim figures, the project can run up to P100 million which is being negotiated with a bank to obtain financing through a loan facility - that is why it was not in the 2008 Budget, according to the City Mayor. Fiscal-wise, he said, the project will be partly self-financing - from the fees to be paid by those who will use the drainage facilities for their waste matter.

However if the City - both Executive and Legislative - is serious in getting that loan, did it appropriate at least the payment of interest for such loan within the year 2008?

If it is not there, then there is clearly no intent to secure the waste water treatment facility within the year. Let's not delude the public any longer then.

Without politicizing the issue, City Mayor Lim and Vice Mayor Veloso (who once headed the Appropriations Committee) should be honest with the city residents: are we serious in erecting that waste water treatment facility in 2008 or not? If not this year, when?

Considering the seriousness of the growing flooding and pollution problems in the city, it behooves these top city officials to be forthright and lay the cards on the table.

Governor Erico Aumentado broke his silence on the matter - after the intensity of the citizen complaints - and volunteered together with Congressman Chatto to intercede up the President's level to help solve the problem. "The city government must cooperate, especially if it does not have the resources to implement the project," the Governor said.

Clearly then, when the welfare of the city residents are in jeopardy - the mayor or the father of the city should spearhead the search to solve this concern.

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