Vico Sotto’s tears of joy

In the Philippines, corruption in flood control projects is more destructive than the storms.

The flood in Pasig City could have at least been mitigated had Mayor Vico Sotto been kind and appreciative of Engr. Selwyn Lao’s ideas of good governance, instead of mocking him and laughing at him so hard there were tears of joy in the mayor’s eyes.

Consequently, the Vico Sotto city administration has lost a good man.

Lately, Sotto has demonstrated the capability of his social media outfit to spring into action to flash the youthful mayor’s “pogi points,” his attractiveness, his quick actions, in the context particularly of courting presidential recognition, national and global admiration.

Two months ago, Engr. Lao, a top-notch Mapua graduate and an expert environmental engineer, gave me an album of pictures showing flooding in various parts of the country, but mainly in Metro Manila, with literature on how, when, and why they happen.

From him, I got the impression that in the Philippines, corruption is more destructive than the storms. He said that we may not be able to stop the storms, but we can stop the destruction if we can jail the corrupt in government.

As scheduled, here is Engr. Lao’s executive summary of his sufferings in the hands of Mayor Sotto of Pasig City.

In view of the request of our readers, and because of its significance for the education of our youth, this summary will be published to the end, supplemented by radio and TV programs.

1. Years of dealing with drug problems.

—In January 2017, my company, Wing-An Construction, relocated its equipment depot and construction yard from Manila to 1988 J.B. Miguel Street, Barangay Bambang, Pasig City. The property we occupy is owned by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. From the moment we transferred to this location, we were plagued by theft, pilferage, and drug-related issues, primarily due to the presence of a squatter colony, a known hotbed of criminal activity, adjacent to our property wall.

—Within three months of relocating, valuable equipment and materials were stolen from our site.

—We identified the primary culprits as Rogelio Babon Sr. and his 13 children, all of whom had criminal or police records.

—Disturbingly, the police referred to them as “assets,” which meant they were essentially protected and remained free, enabling their criminal activities to continue unchecked.

—In an effort to solve the problem peacefully, I chose to employ Babon Sr.’s family as construction workers.

—This strategy backfired. Babon Jr. and others abused their position by organizing thefts within the yard. A hole was bored in the fence to pass stolen materials to the squatter area. In return, my workers received shabu. Babon Jr. built makeshift quarters inside our compound — turning it into a drug den used by both workers and squatters all in the property of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

Let us continue to follow these drug-related issues occurring in the drug den within Engr. Selwyn Lao’s equipment depot near the doorsteps of Pasig City Hall.