Senators to grill DPWH, MMDA over flood control failure

MANILA, Philippines — Senators yesterday demanded answers from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) for the failure of flood control projects to curb flooding in Metro Manila.

Senate public works committee chairperson Ramon Revilla Jr. noted the seeming lack of cooperation between the agencies and local government units in ensuring that waterways are cleared of trash so that these can properly drain floodwater to the sea.

He vouched for the need for a flood control master plan as stressed by President Marcos in the aftermath of Typhoon Carina that enhanced the monsoon rains and inundated the metropolis.

“We still lack a coordinated, unified approach and thus still need a flood management master plan,” Revilla said in a dwIZ interview yesterday.

However, he noted an improvement in draining out the water after Carina, compared to the experience of flooding during the 2009 onslaught of tropical storm Ondoy.

The Senate public works committee is set to resume its inquiry into the country’s flood control master plan next week.

Revilla said he would seek answers as to why the DPWH has a billion-peso budget for flood management, yet the heavy rain still flooded Metro Manila.

For his part, Senate Minority Leader Koko Pimentel vowed to include the topic of flood control in his Kontra-Sona speech on Monday.

Pimentel noted that President Marcos in his State of the Nation Address (SONA) mentioned 5,500 flood control projects that have been completed, including those that seek to curb flooding near Pampanga Bay and Cagayan de Oro River.

“But two days after SONA, that portion of his SONA was put to question. If there are 5,500 completed flood control projects, what happened?” Pimentel said in Filipino.