P-Noy bats for P2-B flood control project in Bulacan

MALOLOS CITY, Philippines – President Aquino said during a visit here last Friday that engineering interventions worth at least P2 billion are being prepared to address perennial flooding in Bulacan.

This came as the province reeled from severe flooding brought by heavy monsoon rains followed by back floods from the Pampanga River.

The engineering interventions cited by the President include the Valenzuela, Obando, Meycauayan (VOM) flood control project.

Aquino said a P2.2-billion fund for the project is now available and it will be completed by 2015.

As a flood control project, the VOM is designed to stop rising seawater from submerging coastal communities.

It will be complemented by the National Greening Program on the inland area of the province and in Metro Manila.

“It will prevent further erosion on the mountain which is the main cause of siltation and massive flooding in the lowlands,” the President said.

Aquino also said Public Works and Highways Secretary Rogelio Singson, who has been appointed the country’s “water czar,” and his team are now coordinating with local officials in affected areas to estimate the damage caused by the severe flooding.

Singson asked Bulacan Gov. Wilhelmino Alvarado to convene the committee on infrastructure of the Regional Development Council (RDC) in Central Luzon which proposed the revival of the mothballed Pampanga River Control System (PRCS).

Alvarado is chair of the committee, while the PRCS is under a division of the DPWH tasked to oversee the dredging of rivers and maintenance of flood control systems in Central Luzon.

The PRCS was dissolved to pave way for the creation of the Mt. Pinatubo Commission to save San Fernando, Pampanga and other areas devastated by the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991.

Alvarado also briefed the President on the flood situation in Bulacan, particularly the back floods that submerged the towns of Calumpit and Hagonoy since Thursday as well as the status of the three big dams in the province – Angat, Ipo and Bustos.

He also told the President that the National Power Corp. (Napocor) which operates the Angat Dam has promised that it will not release excess water in order not to aggravate the back floods that further submerged Calumpit and Hagonoy.