A Bombastik project

Navotas had experienced decades of ups and downs, long before he became mayor of the city. Year after year, streets would be raised to keep houses from getting drowned in floodwater. This would happen at least 219 days of each year in this fishing village.  

When Mayor Toby Tiangco assumed his post in 2001, he chanced upon the solution to this problem of flooding while watching a man device his own system of getting water out of his house. As water from the flooded street reached his door, the man simply blocked the opening using a piece of wood – it worked! Then, the man used a pail to scoop out the water that came into his house. This simple observation became the inspiration for Tiangco’s solution to the flooding in Navotas. The dikes were inspired by the piece of wood, the water pumps by the pail. These will complement the floodgates which are closed off before high tide so that the sea water does not come in, and opened during low tide. Bombastik! How could anyone have missed this solution that people have been practicing every time Navotas was flooded?

What went through Tiangco’s mind as he pondered the risks of this seemingly simplistic method to solve a perpetual problem? He thought, “Damage to property you can repair but how do you

repair damage to life?” Having seen the fatal effects of typhoons long before “Ondoy,” he was determined to make a permanent solution to the flooding that had plagued Navotas 60 percent of every year!

Indeed, from ordinary situations can come extraordinary applications. By observing what works for those who deal with the problem, the mayor arrived at the bombastik solution. 

One hurdle was funding for the project. Philippine law states that the calamity fund can be used to build structures only after the declaration of a state of calamity. The challenge in this case is that one cannot declare such state until the actual calamity happens. The law does not have funding for calamity prevention! An official simply follows the law, and waits for calamity to happen – and then reacts.

By the ironic stroke of fate, Sept. 11, 2001 happened. The terrorist attack of the Twin Towers in New York prompted the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to classify calamities, such as earthquakes, typhoons, terrorism, as either natural or manmade. This was equally bombastic – a breakthrough!

If calamity funds could be used to prevent terrorism – an imagined threat – the same could be allocated for structures that prevent flooding – a definite occurrence. This was the mayor’s argument – and the city council was convinced.

With the right mix of good intentions, common sense, right timing, and forward thinking, he arrived at a practical solution. Of the P600-million city budget, five percent went to the calamity fund – i.e., P30 million each year directed towards calamity. The unspent calamity budget for the previous quarter would be carried over to the succeeding quarter. Every quarter of savings was directed to the project. Over a period of six years, Tiangco was able to build 20 Bombastiks in his city – the total cost of which is dirt cheap compared to the cost of raising the roads.

The Bombastik was put to extreme test during Ondoy. While the weather proved catastrophic for other municipalities, Navotas experienced nothing higher than knee-deep flooding. The small city of Navotas has reached out to its neighboring cities by donating goods and assistance from both its local government and community. The city’s amphibian vehicles were dispatched to the flooded cities upon the request of the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC). 

How is Navotas today?

Tiangco aims to eradicate flooding by completing the building of dikes in Navotas. Aside from the present dikes facing the river, he will construct coastal dikes facing Manila Bay.

A Navotas resident said to his friend in an email that though his barangay flooded because of the heavy rains, it was only knee-deep, and the floods began to recede by evening. Navotas had flooded, but not like other cities in Metro Manila which were submerged. The pumps helped a lot, he said, and by Sunday morning the floodwaters had totally subsided.

Now that’s bombastik!