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BY JOHNNY NOVERA
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Tuesday, May 9, 2017
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AS A COLUMNIST, we had the opportunity to watch the development of the Iloilo River and wrote a series of articles concerning its problems from February 2009, until it clinched a Gold Award in the 2010 International Award for Livable Communities (LivCom) in November 2010.
The award was received by Iloilo City mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog who traveled to Chicago, Illinois in the US for the awarding ceremonies.
We are happy to compile in book form our series of articles on the Iloilo River to document the work undertaken in its cleanup and development into a clean river body that we have today. It is titled “Our River and Land in the City”, now on its second printing.
It is great to note of the continuing maintenance of the Iloilo River and now there is this planned extension of the river esplanades on both banks from Benigno Aquino Jr. Avenue near UP to Forbes Bridge in La Paz, Iloilo City.
But what about the rehabilitation of Iloilo’s second river body, the Batiano River? What is the score? Why did it lag behind that of the Iloilo River? According to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) way back in 2014 yet, the plans were already afoot to replicate the Iloilo River’s success in the Batiano River.
If we look back much earlier, there was then Mayor Vincent Flores of Oton, Iloilo, who took the initiative and hosted a meeting or what he called a River Summit on Oct. 8, 2011, at Tatoy’s Manokan in Villa Beach, Arevalo, Iloilo City, to discuss the development and problems of the Batiano River, especially as it affects his municipality.
Delegates to the summit were led no less by Sen. Franklin Drilon, together with Cong. Jerry P. Treñas, Iloilo governor Arthur Defensor Sr., and Iloilo City mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog, who all made a “commitment pledge” by affixing their signatures on a wide tarpaulin or streamer that read: “We commit ourselves to rehabilitate, protect and preserve the Batiano River as a sustainable development.”
The river summit happened almost six years ago. While we are happy for the continued maintenance and development of the Iloilo River with the beautiful esplanades being built on its river banks, on the other hand, may we ask how much rehab work was done on its twin-river body, the Iloilo-Batiano River?
We remember the study previously undertaken by Dr. Lope Villenas, consultant in hydrology and team leader of the Center for Environmental Studies & Management (CESM), to set up an Iloilo-Batiano Integrated River Basin Management and Master Plan. Was it ever finished and implemented?
We expressed this wish before and we say it again: Restoring Iloilo’s “twin-river system” or the connectivity of the Iloilo and Batiano Rivers will not only enhance the protection of our environment throughout the banks of the two river bodies, but maybe add a historic river tour from Iloilo City to the old trading port at Batiano Bridge in Oton town. (For comments or re-actions, please e-mail to jnoveracompany@yahoo.com/PN)
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