SEN. Joel Villanueva yesterday questioned the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) how it spent its P1 billion a day flood control budget amid the massive flooding that hit Metro Manila and neighboring provinces due to strong rains induced by typhoon “Carina.”
“Imagine, for the past two years (including this year), we have this P1B a day flood control budget for DPWH alone. P1B a day. Please tell me if anyone here can see at least an improvement sa mga baha (in flood control),” Villanueva said.
Villanueva said his hometown in Bocaue and other towns in Bulacan were submerged in flood waters as of Wednesday dawn.
The senator first questioned the P1-billion a day flood control budget of the DPWH during the Development Budget Coordinating Committee (DBCC) presentation of the 2024 proposed national budget in August 2023.
Villanueva noted then that for 2024, the DPWH was allotted an estimated P1.018 billion fund a day for foreign-assisted projects, flood control projects, and mitigating items under its “Flood control” program.
In 2023, he said the DPWH had a budget of P1.079 billion a day under the same program.
Despite the big budget, Villanueva complained the DPWH has not been able to mitigate floodings.
Also during the DBCC presentation last year, Villanueva expressed disappointment after learning that the P10 billion 60-kilometer floodway project in Central Luzon was not included in the National Expenditure Program for 2024 as the appropriation was still being studied that time.
Senate President Francis Escudero, during the same DBCC presentation, has said that the P255 billion flood control allocation in the 2024 proposed national budget was “too big,” noting that it was far bigger than the capital outlay budget of the Department of Agriculture (P40.13 billion), and of the Department of Health (P24.57 billion).
Escudero said the budget for flood control “even beat our railway budget by over P100 billion,” pointing out that the railway budget was only P153 billion, while the budget for irrigation projects was placed at P31 billion.
RECLAMATION PROJECTS
Escudero yesterday suspended work at the Senate and the session until 3 p.m. on Monday after floods inundated the compound’s main entrance along Diokno boulevard in Pasay City.
Senators Villanueva, Juan Miguel Zubiri, and Joseph Victor Ejercito said the flooding may have been caused by the ongoing reclamation projects at the Manila Bay.
“This I believe is the consequence of all the reclamation happening in Manila Bay. Wala nang malabasan ang floodwater dito sa Pasay at Manila. Babaha at babaha na palagi diyan sa atin tuwing uulan ng malakas (The floodwaters here in Pasay and Manila have nowhere to go. Floods will now always occur here each time there is heavy rainfall),” Zubiri said.
Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr., chairperson of the Committee on Public Works, said he will push for an inquiry on why there was massive floodings in Metro Manila and other parts of the country amid the rains brought by Carina.
Revilla said senators have always been reminding the DPWH and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) to ensure that infrastructures and drainage systems are regularly checked to prevent floodings, to which he said the two agencies have also repeatedly assured that they are prepared for the rainy season.
“Sa kabila niyan, nakita natin ang epekto at abala ng habagat. Hindi na dapat ito maulit (Despite that, we saw the effects of the southwest monsoon. This should not happen again),” he said.
