EDITORIAL - Immobilized

The downpour Tuesday night lasted just one hour, but the havoc that was wreaked in the streets of Metro Manila and neighboring areas lasted until the wee hours of Wednesday. From Parañaque to Quezon City, EDSA once again became a giant parking lot. So were Macapagal Boulevard as well as parts of Taft Avenue and the South Luzon Expressway.

At the nation’s principal airport, flights were grounded by several inches of floods on the taxiway. Along streets around the NAIA the flooding was deeper as the downpour swelled creeks and other waterways, making vehicular traffic grind to a halt.

There was no typhoon or even a low-pressure area. A color-coded rainfall warning system is supposed to be in place. Before the onset of the rainy season, concerned agencies made all the requisite noises about being prepared for flash floods. Rivers and other waterways were supposed to have been dredged. So what happened on Tuesday night?

The Metro Manila Development Authority said all its 25 water pumping stations were working, but they failed to do the job. It took hours for the floods to subside in many areas including the thoroughfares leading to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. If any river or creek had been dredged, the work was also inadequate. Weather forecasters, for their part, explained that the rainfall warning system does not work for thunderstorms, which was what hit Metro Manila.

Along Macapagal Boulevard going to Coastal Road, the mess was aggravated by huge craters on the pavement that have been waiting for repairs and causing massive traffic jams for many weeks now. The Department of Public Works and Highways has said the road is outside its jurisdiction and repairs are the responsibility of the Philippine Reclamation Authority, a government corporation headed by Peter Anthony Abaya.

Members of the Philippine National Police Highway Patrol Group were on the job along EDSA together with traffic enforcers of the MMDA and local government units, but motorists could not be forced to plunge their vehicles into floodwaters up to three feet deep.

The result was several hours of paralysis in the evening rush, with thousands of commuters forced to walk because no mass transportation vehicles could make it through the gridlock. It’s just the middle of the rainy season. After Tuesday night’s disaster, the government must come up with some solutions.