By BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR.

TUESDAY evening’s near-panic in coastal Bonuan Gueset and even parts of barangay Pantal and the downtown area when water began suddenly carpeting the groundfloor of homes and roads – this less than 12 hours after an Intensity 6 earthquake shook the city at lunchtime –necessarily brings images of the deadly July 16, 1990 killer quake, if not Apocalypse itself.

A hundred or so shanty dwellers in the Gueset area, including those in the honky-tonks of Bagong Baryo fled in fright as three-meter high waves began to batter the beach area and floodwater entered their homes and small video-oke cottages. In the downtown area, we are told, even at the CSI area and the portion of A.B. Fernandez Ave. just before the Quintos bridge, “floodwater” went over ankle-high, suprising late-night motorists, shopowners and pedestrians.

Most of the city especially in other interior barangays slept unaware of the near-panic scene in Gueset and the downtown area.

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Now, juxtapose this local scene with the serious concern expressed in faraway Valencia, Spain which is expected to be again highlighted in the coming climate change summit in Bali Indonesia next week.

Inquirer’s Amando Doronilla, in his column quoting passages in the Fourth Assessment Report of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said:

“A report by a coalition of environment groups, titled “Up in Smoke? Asia and the Pacific,” says Asia is “effectively on the front line of climate change,” as it is home to almost two-thirds of the world’s population. With half of this population living near the coast, billions are directly vulnerable to a rise in sea levels driven by a warming world. Asia is where the “human drama of climate change” will be largely played out.”

The report, by the New Economics Foundation, represents the perspective of a coalition of 21 members, including Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Oxfam, ActionAid International, and the Working Group on Climate Change and Development.

Calling on richer countries to commit to make mandatory cuts in greenhouse gases, the report says climate change “will undo” decades of “painfully won” social and economic progress across Asia, through increasingly frequent and extreme weather events.
We’re right in the middle of this mess, folks, this beloved city of ours that (as we seem to “fondly” refer to it during flood season) “is located below sea level” like this appellation were something to boost its domestic tourism value.

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But, seriously now, where did all that water that carpeted the downtown area come from? The clogged canals would naturally be the first explanation; you can bet the city engineer’s office will quickly harness that convenient line even before it had really conducted an in-depth investigation on the phenomenon.

The fact though that the Pantal river also quickly overran its banks in other parts of the city including Bacayao and Pogo Grande, two of the admittedly low-lying barangays of the city, last Tuesday evening indicates something disturbingly geologic in nature occurring little by little – perhaps centimeter by centimeter or inch by precious inch — in the city’s area.

People quite naturally avoid saying, listening or staring at truth or reality if this is discomforting. But being a resident of this city since birth, we believe we do have a stake in knowing what the city’s actual condition is. Perhaps the city government can commission some serious scientific study on just how safe is the city today to inhabitants and visitors?

We wish to end on that note, for now.