Mayors want NDRRMC to authorize dam water release

MANILA, Philippines — After the catastrophic flooding seen in Cagayan and Marikina brought about by Typhoon Ulysses, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) yesterday said mayors now want the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) to first authorize the release of water from dams.

Interior Secretary Eduardo Año explained that allowing the proposed measure would help authorities make informed decisions on water releases and make this a “shared responsibility.”

“The NDRRMC is a multi-agency… it means, at any time, before making such decisions or plans, it can get all data. In one presentation, we can get a decision or strategy for, let’s say three or four days before,” Año said in an interview aired over Teleradyo, urging dam management to release water days ahead of a storm’s approach.

Floodwaters displaced and forced residents in Cagayan to their roofs, prompting cries of help on social media due to inadequate response and rescue operations.

The widespread flooding in Cagayan was partly blamed on the massive release of water from Magat Dam.

“What dam managers fear is what if it doesn’t rain? At least it’s a shared responsibility. We have to risk it, otherwise we’ll see damage,” Año added.

Dam managers have said water must be released when the spill level is reached, otherwise the gates could burst and create a bigger catastrophe.

Vice President Leni Robredo backed the calls for an investigation into the unprecedented flooding in Cagayan and Isabela provinces, saying there was “definitely an oversight.”

She noted that severe flooding should have been anticipated considering that the rains dumped by Typhoons Quinta and Rolly already saturated the soil in the area in the past weeks.

The flooding in Cagayan, the worst in 45 years, left at least nine people dead.

“It was definitely an oversight. But who committed the oversight, I do not have any data to say… There was definitely an oversight because this should have been anticipated considering that we already had Typhoons Quinta and Rolly,” Robredo said in an interview with ANC.

“Were we able to estimate the amount of rainfall? That was also the question (I asked) when I visited Marikina, Rodriguez and Cainta in Rizal. I asked them, were they warned enough that there was really danger of having floods of this magnitude because we really need an investigation,” she pointed out.

Meanwhile, a police official yesterday said the “gold rush area” in Quezon town in Nueva Vizcaya, often crowded with pocket miners, was closed following last Thursday’s landslide that killed 10 pocket miners from Ifugao and Quirino who ventured to the concession area of mining permit holder FCF Minerals Corp.

Pocket miners and their families have been trooping to the concession area to conduct small-scale mining activities for gold.

But Nueva Vizcaya police director Col. Ranser Evasco said the area was closed off following President Duterte’s order to stop illegal logging and mining activities in Cagayan Valley.

Evasco also told The STAR that settlers in Sitio Compound and Sitio Bit-ang in Barangay Runruno were already evacuated.

Duterte, during his visit to Cagayan last Sunday, cited reports that the mountain slope gave way when tunnels dug by miners were filled with rainwater. – Helen Flores, Raymund Catindig, Ramon Efren Lazaro