MASANTOL, Pampanga- This town’s Mayor Danilo Guinto has appealed to Pres. Aquino’s intervention for temporary measures for the safety of at least 5,000 folk in Barangay Sapang Cauayan after Typhoon Glenda heavily damaged eight kilometers of breakwater structures against waves from Manila Bay.
“A storm surge in the next typhoon could easily claim the lives of no less than 5,000 folk in Barangay Sapang Cauayan alone,” Guinto told Punto in a telephone interview. Some 24,000 other folk in seven other eastern barangays have also been exposed to surges from Manila Bay.
Guintu cited the “urgent need” for engineering intervention to create even just a temporary breakwater amid threat of another storm that could affect their area. Citing the urgency of the situation, Guintu said presidential intervention could “speed up things.”
Local folk have already started work building earthen breakwater, but their number and resources would not be enough, he added. Former Vice Mayor Bajun Lacap said Typhoon Glenda totally destroyed the breakwater structures that used to prevent Manila Bay’s strong waves from penetrating the eastern barangays which have always been prone to flooding.
“This time, the floods would not recede anymore despite improved weather because we are now exposed to the waters of Manila Bay,” he noted.
