BY ABE ALMIROL
WITH the great amount of rain that poured in Luzon for several days while Typhoon Ulysses is travelling above land, floods will definitely submerge the low-lying areas of Cagayan and Isabela, with or without the Magat Dam.
The poor structure, which gave life to thousands of rice fields that fed the nation and provided electricity since its inauguration on October 27, 1982, suddenly looked ugly. The managers who manned Magat Dam for decades instantly became morons who knew nothing about hydrology, and some noisy politician became a genius in front of the media.
Now, Congress might spend several weeks to discuss this Magat Dam theory, and will forget about the neglected conversion of forestland into corn plantations from the eastern bank of the Cagayan River to the mid-section of the Sierra Madre mountain range in Isabela and Cagayan.
Magat is just one among the 20 rivers discharging water to the Cagayan River.
Social media is not good at all. It helps falsehood to be able to circle around the world before the truth can even pull up its pants up.
But the worse thing is, mainstream media gets to carry a story that seems to agree with the distorted truth. And one Cagayano became the voice of all Cagayanos.