If you don’t want to be found out, go and blame somebody else.
After several days of being stuck in traffic, suffering and going through rain and floods, netizens and the media have called out government officials and politicians to explain why large areas of Luzon, the NLEX and SLEX were flooded and demanded real solutions. Other asked what happened to all the millions of pesos budgeted and disbursed for flood control projects, clearing of canals and waterways?
But instead of answering the questions, what most of us saw was finger-pointing and blame. There was no one from the national government officially explaining the reasons and stating what would be done in the short-term and long-term.
Instead, it was the private sector such as NLEX and SLEX that made efforts to point out that the flooding was primarily caused by incessant rains that managed to fill many dams in Luzon as well as the unusually higher high tide during the past week. When a portion of the SLEX ground level flooded, everyone seemed to know that the flooding was related to the construction of large commercial establishments in the area. The question is, did the local government study the environmental impact of the buildings in the area relative to the SLEX?
When news broke about the floods in the Pampanga and Bulacan area as well as NLEX, a former government official called me to say that the Japan International Cooperation Agency or JICA had offered to fund a flood control project designed to direct the flow of flood waters towards the sea, but powerful local officials blocked the project.
The first time Filipinos witnessed the widespread flooding of Central Luzon was in November of 1970 when Typhoon Yoling struck and was followed by one or two more storms. Kilometer-long stretches of MacArthur Highway literally disappeared under floodwaters as dams and rice paddies overflowed.
Years later, things got worse due to the eruption and lahar flow of Mt. Pinatubo that made most of the rivers, wetlands and natural waterways in central Luzon shallower. The response of government was to let nature take its course while local governments took advantage of the business opportunity from quarrying and trucking lahar.
As for flooding, the answer was to raise the roads and street levels higher than the surrounding area. As a result of our ignorance or lack of will in implementing environmental management controls, we now pay for the sin of omission by government.
So here we are watching some members of Congress and local politicians play the blame game. They have even dragged the San Miguel Bulacan Airport project into their blame game and are trying to feed unfounded speculations that the project may be contributing to the recent floods, as suggested by one clueless legislator. In response, SMAI has release this statement (Edited for lack of space):
“No reclamation is being done on the airport project site. The project involves land redevelopment. San Miguel Aerocity Inc. is restoring land that has been submerged in water back into land again. Dutch company Royal Boskalis, which SMC tapped to do this, has ensured that work will be done in accordance with the highest specifications in safety and sustainability.
“In developing the site, SMC is backed by an Export Credit Insurance (ECI) from the Dutch government that was extended to Royal Boskalis to cover its EUR 1.5 billion contract for land development work in Bulakan, Bulacan.
“The approval came after over a year of rigorous review of the project’s long-term environmental and social impact mitigation measures to ensure that the multi-billion project is done with sustainability in mind and aligned with the country’s climate ambitions.
“SMAI has also tapped an international consultant to put together a Flood Management Plan that is supported by flood modeling studies and in-house monitoring of project site rainfall measurement swell as actual river lever monitoring of rivers adjacent to the project site.
“The study showed no increase in water levels since the land development started and that the project has no direct effect on the recent flooding in the area. The design of the proposed airport in Bulacan province is meant to address, not worsen, the problem of flooding in the area that has existed for several decades and made worse by clogged waterways and drainages.
“Upon the request of Bulacan LGUs and as part of the NMIA project Flood Management plan, SMC has commenced clean-up initiatives for Meycauyan River in October 2022, followed by Maycapiz/Taliptip River last March. So far, SMC has removed 540,000 metric tons of silt and waste or 40 percent of the target volume, covering 4.4 kms of the 13 kms initial length around the airport site perimeter.
“SMC expects to complete the clean-up and dredging of the surrounding rivers of the new airport site by February 2024. The initial dredging has so far helped improve the flow of water out to Manila Bay based on feedback from local officials and communities in Bulakan and Obando.
“SMC is committed to invest time and resources in cleaning waterways outside of the airport perimeter and further upstream of Meycauyan and Taliptip rivers and its main tributaries to finally address the long-standing problem of flooding in Meycauyan, Marilao, Bocaue and Guiguinto.
“SMC is also looking to include in its river clean-up project other waterways outside of the airport site’s river network and in the northern part of Bulacan, namely, Pamawaran River, Labingan-Angat River, Hagonoy-Paombong River and Malolos River.
“These are the rivers where tributaries from northern towns of Bulacan such as Calumpit, Malolos, Hagonoy and Paombong discharge waters. These are also linked to the rivers in Pampanga and Nueva Ecija and are more at risk whenever waters in dams are released due to prolonged heavy rains.”
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