Oft-flooded town street time has long forgotten

IN THE town of Daet (province of Camarines Norte), a municipal street, Curri Street Extension (renamed E. M. De Leon) in Barangay Camambugan, always gets flooded. If I remember right, I built on one side of the street a long wooden footbridge—from the front of my father-in-law’s residence up to San Vicente Street. That was in the 1960s or more than 50 years ago.

To alleviate the plight of the residents there and do away with the footbridge (which a number of drunks did “use” as a diving board), the late Vice Mayor Vicente Basit, in his capacity as the acting municipal mayor then, ordered several truckloads of sand and gravel (using his own trucks) dumped on the flooded portions of the street.

I know whereof I speak because I built a house in 1961 behind my father-in-law’s residential house. And we lived there until my family transferred to a new house in 1983, which was built out of a P112,000 Pag-Ibig Fund loan.

Other roads, like Baldovino Street in a barangay made quite busy with vehicles owned by lawyers and tricycles used by their clients attending to some business at the Hall of Justice, are also in a state of disrepair; to be sure, they’re known for the abundant potholes that fill up with water when it rains. These roads keep Daet far behind its neighboring LGUs—Basud, Mercedes, Talisay and Vinzons—whose streets are cemented.

With its streets in such a deplorable condition, how could Daet be the “town of character” that Mayor Tito S. Sarion publicly boasts of from time to time? Or does Daet deserve more to be called a “town of tricycles”—after the tricycles that every day obstruct the flow of traffic in downtown Daet? How long must it take for Daet’s officials to improve Camarines Norte’s capital town, the province’s center of education and business, so that it can qualify to become a city? Daet is the only provincial capital in the Bicol region that is far behind the cities of Iriga and Ligao, in terms of progress, by 100 years. Why do Daet’s municipal mayors—from the late Jose P. Timoner (Daet’s mayor for more than 20 years) to the incumbent Mayor Sarion—totally neglect Curri Street Extension?

Aren’t the residents of Barangay Camambugan registered voters? Why is it that the incumbent municipal mayor doesn’t care about them?

—GODOFREDO O. PETEZA SR.,

JP Rizal Street,

Barangay Camambugan,

Daet, Camarines Norte 4600