Floods and Our Barangay Captain

Some months ago, even if there was a drought, the top of our drainage system was filled to the brim. We were aghast as we could almost imagine how much worse things would be when the rains came. Okay, so I prayed they wouldn't even if I knew that was selfish of me. Then I saw the cracked lands in Central Luzon and felt guilty that I wasn't helping pray for rain. So I modified my prayer and asked God to, yes, let it rain, but please don't let there be a flood inside our house, not even on our grounds. He did divide the Red Sea to let Moses et al. pass, didn't he? Humor aside, I really prayed hard. Years back, my son had his classmates over for a project and rainwater was coming inside the house from our flooded garage and our leaking roof. Bizarre. We promptly addressed the roof problem by investing in a roof courtesy of Puyat Steel no less (over a hundred grand pesos but it has spared us a lot of anxiety since), but our flood problem was something else.

I was certain the problem stemmed from what our barangay captain had done to the barangay hall and its immediate vicinity. He constructed buildings galore, put concrete pathways, etc. etc. Shades of his having an edifice complex or to get grease money care of the contractors? Benefit of the doubt? He did put up something or other in these buildings like a botica ng bayan, a conference room, etc. Fine. But whomever he asked to build did not consider the impact of the construction on the houses that shared a wall with the barangay hall. our house was one of those.

I spoke to my immediate neighbor whose drainage passes ours before going out to the barangay like ours does and she had this brilliant idea of hiring a contractor to address our joint problem. The estimate floored me. P200 thousand. I was very frank with the neighbor. I told her I didn't want to spend beyond P5 thousand. She said, "ay tuod, day (pronounced as dye, which translates to "really girl?)?" Actually, last year, we had bought a submersible pump for under P5 thousand but it didn't seem sufficient this time around because as I mentioned earlier, the drainage was full even without the rains.

Upon hearing my astonishing budget, the neighbor pleaded with her contractor (so she told me) to lower the cost. He gave another option - use smaller pipes and pay P120 thousand. That would still mean P60 thousand for each of us. I refused to budge. Neighbor said, let's ask the barangay captain to assume a third of the cost. I said, I still didn't want to pay P40 grand. As one sister of mine said, "suffer the floods, they don't come every day." Somehow, I was willing to do that except that even without rains, the drainage was full (this is the third time I've written this). At any rate, we bought another pump, bigger than the previous one, and had a hose attached to it. The hose resembles the hose of fire trucks, honest. Except that they're blue. Imagine that we have a ladder like PLDT's and a hose like a fire trucks. anyway...

So the bigger pump worked better than the smaller pump which conked out at the height of the second to the last typhoon. But once the storms left, though the garage no longer had water flowing, the drainage system was still ... (you know the answer).

I frequently talk to the maids and believe me they have some insights worth considering. One maid told me that water from the barangay side came to our grounds because their drainage was kaput or something. See, I told her, I was right. Our problem originates from the barangay. We pumped water out just the same because as another maid pointed out, stagnant water could breed mosquitoes. But our neighbor stopped pumping. At least her maids did. Neighbor had gone home to the province. So I texted her, she called and i told her so. Her maids turned on their pump the day after.

Meanwhile, the drainage problem was really getting to me. I reached a point where I felt so furious that I thought of writing the barangay captain. Years back, I did, invoking the friendship of his grandson and my son. That was a ma-drama letter, certainly, but I was desperate and it worked. A few months ago, neighbor and my husband spoke to the barangay captain but he said he wasn't sure he had a budget. He wasn't sure if elections for his position would proceed this year or be postponed. (So? what's its relevance to our problem, we wondered? But I wasn't there to pursue the question and maybe, even if I were, I might not have mustered the guts to ask. anyway...) Desperate yet again, I wrote another ma drama letter. Prior to doing so, I had been sharing this problem with my sister who said, "Why don't you present your problem to Channel 2? They have a special feature on barangay problems."

No, I didn't send any letter to Channel 2, but taking it from there (my sister's suggestion), I wrote the barangay captain and mentioned my sister's suggestion. I said that I didn't want to embarrass him needlessly, though, because I valued the friendship of his grandson and my son, etc.

A few days later, the maid was no longer turning on our pump but there was no water visible on the brim of our drainage system. Alleluia, I thought. was it because our neighbor was pumping water out? Then it occurred to me that possibly, some action may have been initiated by our barangay captain.

As it was night time when these insights flooded (pun unintended)my mind, I asked the maid to pay a visit to the barangay the following day. Lo and behold, they were doing something to their drainage system which made water flow from our side to the canal and their water flow to the canal rather than to our grounds too. whew.

Neighbor still doesn't know of this development as she's in the province. Will she be surprised!

I still haven't thanked our barangay captain because I want to really check out how long this relief will last. There have been rains the past days but they didn't last too long.

Possibly, next week, I'll say thank you properly...