MMDA flood pumps failed

MANILA, Philippines - A major pumping station in Taguig City lay idle on Tuesday as Metro Manila and its environs were being inundated by flood triggered by continuous monsoon rains.

Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) chairman Francis Tolentino said yesterday no diesel fuel was available to operate the pumping station in Taguig City, one of the areas in Metro Manila most devastated by the flood. 

Tolentino said he had ordered the relief of Baltazar Melgar as head of the MMDA’s Flood Control and Sewerage Management Office (FCSMO) for negligence. Melgar denied Tolentino’s accusations.

Tolentino said Melgar, who has been with the MMDA for the past 15 years, is now on “floating” status.

Melgar was also suspended for allegedly mismanaging pumping operations in the flooded P. Tuazon underpass on EDSA in Cubao.

The flooding of the P. Tuazon underpass last Tuesday triggered a massive traffic jam along EDSA, said Tolentino.

Melgar, who is now under investigation by the MMDA, will be replaced as head of the FCSMO by engineer Maxima Quiambao, head of the FCSMO’s Operations and Maintenance of Drainages, Floodways and Waterways.

Tolentino said Melgar failed to order fuel for the pumping station even though he had already signed a purchase order for it.

Tolentino said Melgar only ordered fuel delivery Wednesday morning. By that time, he said, the floodwaters were already too high for the delivery truck to reach the pumping station.

“ The pumping station didn’t run for a few hours because the fuel truck couldn’t reach it. Fuel delivery should have been done Tuesday night. The pumping station lacked 6,000 liters of fuel,” he said in Filipino.

Tolentino said the Taguig pumping station had been running for 10 days straight when it ran out of fuel.

“We need a more proactive hand,” said Tolentino, explaining his relief of Melgar. “I told her (Quiambao) to be more proactive.”

Aside from Melgar, Tolentino said other MMDA personnel assigned to pumping stations in Taguig City have also been relieved and placed on “floating” status pending the completion of an investigation.

Although he did not name names, sources said Tolentino could be referring to engineers Michael Doce (pumping station and floodgate operation head), Glen Miranda (plant manager, Wawa pumping station), Peter Macabenta (plant manager, Hagonoy pumping station), and Alfonso Oliver (plant manager, Labasan pumping station).

The pumping stations are all located in Taguig City.

Tolentino said Melgar had already filed a leave of absence.

Tolentino assured Melgar and the other personnel removed from their posts that they would be given due process in the MMDA’s investigation.

Tolentino said Melgar, who has been with MMDA since the time of former MMDA chairman Bayani Fernando, has shown “laxity that already bordered on incompetence.”

As another proof of Melgar’s apparent “laxity,” Tolentino cited the relieved official’s failure to inform him of the existence of an MMDA barge in a state of disrepair in the Malabon-Navotas River. 

Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, in text message said the Taguig City government has already sent 1,500 liters of fuel to two pumping stations in the city.

Melgar, for his part, denied that he had been negligent in his duties. “It’s not our fault, because we’re in operations. We just take delivery of fuel,” he said in Filipino in an interview with The STAR.

“We have a purchase request. Our request is good for three months. I don’t know where they (purchase requests) are,” he added.

He said it was the Taguig City government that sent them fuel.

“We knew we were running out of fuel so we made an emergency request for 6,000 liters.

“Our request is 200,000 liters of diesel every three months divided among 22 pumping stations,” he said.

Asked if Tolentino had indeed signed purchase receipts, Melgar said he didn’t know where these are now.

He added the MMDA’s budget for diesel purchase is P50 million monthly. “One pumping station consumes 6,000 liters in 24 hours,” he said.