Amid ‘Inday,’ how’s Bulacan coping with idled flood works?

UNFINISHED Photo taken in October last year shows a suspended floodgate project spanning the Atlag and Bagna Rivers in Malolos. —CARMELA REYES-ESTROPE

CITY OF MALOLOS—Abandoned excavations, unfinished dikes and partially completed drainage structures in suspended flood control projects could worsen flooding in Bulacan amid the onslaught of Typhoon “Inday” (international name: Bavi), a local official said.

Mayor Christian Natividad of this city said flood control efforts have largely been left to the local government units after Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon ordered a freeze on these projects.

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The investigation into the flood works scandal since last year has particularly affected the province after it implicated ranking officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) assigned in Bulacan.

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The Office of the Ombudsman earlier filed graft and other charges against the so-called BGC (Bulacan Group of Contractors) Boys—former district engineer Henry Alcantara, district assistant engineer Brice Hernandez and construction section chief Jaypee Mendoza of the DPWH office in Bulacan’s First District. Later, however, Alcantara and Hernandez were admitted as state witness and “cooperative witness,” respectively.

The Ombudsman and the Bureau of Internal Revenue also filed tax evasion and other charges against contractor couple Sarah and Curlee Discaya in connection with alleged irregularities in a P53.9-million flood works project in Calumpit, Bulacan.

Incomplete structures

Natividad said he supports efforts to investigate corruption, but the suspension of flood control projects has also left communities “vulnerable.”

“Unfinished and abandoned” structures “have become burdens that may even worsen flooding in several barangays,” he added.

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The mayor also wondered if flood mitigation measures being implemented by various national agencies and local governments are being properly coordinated.

“There are projects being undertaken by the Department of Agriculture, such as farm-to-market roads, and by the National Irrigation Administration through irrigation canals, as well as those of the DPWH,” Natividad said in an interview on Wednesday.

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“But are these aligned with one another and with the flood control measures being implemented by the local governments?” he asked.

Flood management requires unified planning and execution, Natividad said. “Different agencies have different mandates and priorities. Achieving uniformity is already a complex challenge because a project that benefits one area could worsen flooding in neighboring communities.”

But instead, the mayor noted, the DPWH has failed to release funds for several flood control projects this year, while many projects have been suspended pending investigation.

Local efforts

The Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office of Malolos and other city agencies have identified flood-prone areas through geohazard mapping, Natividad said. Rivers and waterways have been declogged to improve water flow.

He said these steps are in compliance with the Supreme Court’s 2008 writ of continuing mandamus for the rehabilitation of Manila Bay.

According to the mayor, other Bulacan officials will soon issue statements urging the national government to resume the suspended flood control projects especially in low-lying and coastal communities.

He added that extreme weather caused by climate change has made provinces like Bulacan vulnerable.

‘Inday, habagat’

“We have seen the devastation Typhoon Bavi caused in the Mariana Islands and Guam. We are facing increasingly difficult times,” Natividad said.

Meanwhile, Tropical Cyclone Wind Signal No. 2 remained hoisted over Batanes and other parts of Northern Luzon as Inday continued to move away from the Philippine area of responsibility (PAR) and toward the southern islands of Japan, the weather bureau said Friday in a 5 p.m. bulletin.

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) said Inday was last located 525 kilometers east northeast of Itbayat, Batanes, as of 4 p.m. The storm maintained its strength as it was still carrying a maximum wind speed of 140 km per hour and gustiness of up to 170 kph.

Inday is expected to be out of PAR by 2 p.m. of Saturday at the latest and make landfall over the eastern coast of mainland China by Saturday evening or early Sunday morning.

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But weather specialist John Manalo said the typhoon will continue to enhance the southwest monsoon, or “habagat,” dumping heavy rains on various parts the country.