The MONSTERS that lurk within Angono

As published (Remate Tonight, Nov 9 issue)

The monsters that lurk within Angono

I dedicate my space today to my beloved town of Angono, Rizal where I spent most of my childhood days. Although I was born in Gapan, Nueva Ecija, I consider the erstwhile serene municipality of renowned artists as my second hometown. Erstwhile I said because like most of my friends whom I visited here over the weekend, my heart still bleeds for those twenty or so who perished during the recent typhoons and I share the grief of those whose houses are still submerged under murky and putrid floodwater. I asked around for answers and most of the people here pointed to two environmental disasters that caused the inundation of hundreds of homes in this once tranquil town by the mythical Laguna Lake. First, as my long-time friend Dario U. Orca furiously told me, the shallow Angono River that cuts the town from the North toward the Laguna Lake has overflowed at the height of typhoon Ondoy, washing away a number of houses erected along its banks and those nearby. Secondly, Dario pointed to the “reclamation” of a portion of the lake which now goes by the name Baytown as the second culprit. Other friends agreed. I, too, without a bit of doubt agreed. I studied at the Angono Private High School from 1986 to 1990 but I came to know the place much earlier. Since my childhood days, private firm Concrete Aggregates Corporation has been digging the northern hills of Angono, specifically in Barangay San Isidro. The Ortigas-owned company’s principal activity is supplying processed aggregates, ready mix concrete, bituminous concrete mix and pre-stressed/pre-cast concrete. Its other activities include the excavation of sand and gravel, production of asphalt products and construction of roads and bridges. The Group is quarrying, mixing and selling rock and limestone products to public and private sectors up to this day. The long years of quarrying by the company, according to Dario and most of my friends, made the Angono River shallow with debris and waste materials. Nobody knows when the company, more notoriously known as the “CRUSHER,” would cease operation. Nobody dared to openly criticize the powerful and influential firm until typhoon Ondoy struck in September. Residents complain that the Crusher, which maintains its own water treatment facility, dumps wastes directly into the now muddy Angono River. Local officials led by Rizal Gov. Junjun Ynares, who happens to be my childhood friend, and Angono Mayor Au Villamayor have yet to act on these complaints. Or, probably but I hope not, they just refuse to look at the deadly and vicious monster that lurks within their turf in return for huge taxation. The last I heard was that Mayor Villamayor was planning to dredge Angono River. I say now it will be a futile and inutile decision because for as long the Crusher remains, the mud will never stop flowing.
The second disaster, according to Dario, was the putting up of a dumpsite on Baytown, a reclaimed portion of Laguna De Bay at the boundary of Taytay and Angono. Thanks to the genius of former Angono Mayor Gerry Calderon his provincemates and townmates could hardly enter their houses until now that the lake has yet to subside. I wonder what came into the minds (or pockets?) of local officials and their cohorts in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Laguna Lake Development Authority that they allow these two disasters to proliferate. Calderon, a DENR official, has a lot of explaining to do. I guess this is the best time for those affected to speak up against their official’s flawed and deadly policies. If our lawmakers need something to investigate, they need not look far. All they got to do is take a short trip to Baytown and the MONSTER in Barangay San Isidro, north of my beloved Angono.