MALOLOS CITY—President Benigno Aquino III announced here Friday engineering interventions worth at least P2 billion to address perennial flooding in Bulacan.
This came as the province reeled from severe flooding brought by heavy monsoon rain and followed by back floods from the Pampanga River.
The project cited by the President included the Valenzuela, Obando, Meycauayan (VOM) flood-control project.
He said the P2.2-billion fund is available for the said project to be completed by 2015.
As flood control project, the VOM is designed to stop rising sea water from submerging coastal communities.
It will be complemented by the National Greening Program at the inland area of the province and Metro Manila.
“It will prevent further erosions on the mountain which is the main cause of siltation and massive flooding in the lowlands,” the President said.
Aquino also said Public Works and Highways Secretary Rogelio Singson, whom he appointed as the country’s “water czar,” and his team are now coordinating with local officials in the affected areas to estimate the damages wrought by the severe flooding.
In turn, Singson asked Bulacan Gov. Wilhelmino Alvarado to convene the committee on infrastructure of the Regional Development Council (RDC) in Central Luzon which proposed the revival of the mothballed Pampanga River Control System (PRCS).
Alvarado is the chair of the said committee, while the PRCS is under a division of the DPWH tasked to oversee the dredging of rivers and maintenance of flood control systems in Central Luzon.
The PRCS was dissolved to pave the way for the creation of the Mt. Pinatubo Commission to save the City of San Fernando, Pampanga and other areas devastated by the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991.
Alvarado also briefed the President on the flood situation in Bulacan, particularly the back floods that submerged the towns of Calumpit and Hagonoy since Thursday as well as the status of the three big dams in Bulacan –Angat, Ipo and Bustos.
Alvarado ordered a simultaneous cleanup drive and relief operation in the province where a total of 18,150 families from Marilao, Meycauayan and Bocaue received relief goods.
The governor also instructed Provincial Public Health Officer Dr. Jocelyn Gomez to immediately conduct medical missions in the areas affected by flooding.
