The Senate is set to conduct an inquiry next week to determine the cause of the massive flooding in Cagayan Valley and its neighboring provinces.
Senate President Vicente Sotto III questioned the actions of local governments and cited that “there are many areas that are performing well and not complaining because they are prepared and they have prepared themselves.”
“I don’t see any complaints from Malabon or Valenzuela, eh mga bahain ‘yan (considering that those are flood-prone areas),” Sotto stated.
“Can you imagine we have no clue who’s in charge and maybe that’s one of the reasons why,” Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri pointed out.
Senate Resolution 570 filed by Senator Bong Revilla is now urging committees to convene and conduct an inquiry on the matter to prevent such disasters in the future.
“We must anticipate that the dams will release water. So dapat may mga naka in-place na imprastruktura tulad ng dadaluyan ng tubig at sasalo nito, para huwag rumagasa at manalanta ng mga kabahayan (There should be infrastructures in place like waterways and catch basin to prevent flooding and household damages),” Revilla advised.
Senator Risa Hontiveros also expressed support to the move and filed a separate resolution to “find out what is really causing the vicious cycle and change the story once and for all.”
In the Senate budget hearing of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), it surfaced that Magat Dam released water two days before the downpour.
The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) earlier defended that it had to wait for a go signal from the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA). The latter explained that the releasing of water is under NIA’s control. – Report from Eunice Samonte
