Take flooding problem seriously, govt told

SEN. Joel Villanueva yesterday asked Malacañang to take the flooding problem seriously just as it did to the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs).

“Otherwise, let us just remove the funds for flood management because it’s some waste of money,’ it’s an awful waste of money,” he said in mixed Filipino and English at the “Kapihan sa Senado” media forum.

Public Works Secretary Manuel Bonoan on Tuesday said government has a comprehensive master plan on flood management in Metro Manila but its completion is still “about under 30 percent” 12 years after it was approved.

He also said the Marcos government will continue to implement the P351-billion flood management master plan approved in 2012 and is expected to be completed by 2035.

Villanueva said he is so disgusted with the government’s flood management projects.

“And for the past 10 years we have spent P1.14 trillion… And again, if you look at the past 10 years – I will just talk about my province, Bulacan — we have not seen any improvement. It has even gotten even worse,” he said.

Villanueva noted that the P1.44 a billion a day allotted by government for flood management projects can build 700 classrooms a day, or can provide financial assistance of P10,000 for 144,000 government scholars in a day, or can be converted to 1.78 million relief packs for those affected by typhoon “Carina.”

Villanueva said that in his province of Bulacan alone, some P30 billion was already spent to manage floodwaters but the situation just got worse.

On the Manila Bay Rehabilitation Plan, he said that P7.4 billion has been spent the past years but nothing has been done to revive it.

He said the citizens should also make their local government accountable for the floodings.