More than two years have past since the Feb. 7, 2009 flood hit Dumaguete. More than two years have passed yet, 60 Dumaguete families who used to live along the riverbanks are still dislocated.
Now, the number of environmental refugees has increased following the Dec. 17, 2011 onslaught of tropical storm Sendong.
The City has acquired a lot in barangay Bajumpandan where it will build several homes at P70,000 each. But relocating the families to better and less environmentally-hazardous sites is taking a lot of time.
The victims who have nowhere else to go are forced to live in tents and hovels as they await the promised government assistance.
The government has to move fast to help these victims get back on their feet. Bringing them back to pre-flood days would be a big achievement on the part of the Administration, especially that elections are barely one year away.
The presence of tent-communities would be a black mark on any politician seeking reelection.
The environmental refugees are ready to start again, but they cannot do so while living in tents. Instead of becoming productive members of society, they become more prone to doing drastic things, such as crime, just to feed their families with every day they spend in their temporary shacks.
They could also choose to occupy public buildings, like the white elephant that is the pedestrian overpass.
If the bureaucracy would move just a little faster, we can prevent this major inconvenience on the part of the refugees from becoming a social problem for Dumaguete’s 150,000 residents.
