Oreta blames DPWH for Malabon flood

MANILA, Philippines – Mayor Canuto Oreta blamed the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) yesterday for the flood that affected 300 Malabon City families at the height of typhoon “Feria” Thursday.

Oreta made the statement a day after two 30-year-old dikes – one in Barangay Dampalit, the other in Barangay Catmon – were breached by the tidal waters from the Manila Bay and the runoff from Bulacan and neighboring cities in Metro Manila due to the heavy rains brought by the typhoon.

He said the flood should not have happened had the DPWH completed the long-delayed Camanava flood control project, which included the rehabilitation of the dikes.

The project was to have been completed in June 2007 after work began in earnest in June 2004.

“How come there is no more money for the project? I don’t know. I don’t want to ask. Nothing’s going to happen,” Oreta told The STAR in an interview yesterday.

DPWH Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane sent word they will be inspecting the breached dikes. Oreta said he no longer wishes to meet with them because “they don’t tell the truth.”

About 300 families had to be evacuated to the Catmon Elementary School after chest-deep floodwaters threatened to submerge over 100 shanties in Sitio Gulayan yesterday.

The evacuation site itself was soon flooded by ankle-deep waters so the evacuees had to be housed on the building’s second floor.

Oreta said the 30-year-old dikes, although a component of the multi-billion peso megadike project, were totally neglected by the DPWH.

“They completed on the ‘juicy parts’ with foreign contractors. They left the dikes to local contractors, who are paid ‘spare change,’” he said, apparently referring to the multi-million pumping stations.

Oreta said DPWH officials told him the funds for the project have been used up and the DPWH is still asking for more money to finish the flood control project.

He told The STAR the original P3.8-billion project ballooned to some P7 to 8 billion, but this new figure is unconfirmed. He said he is trying to verify this information.

Oreta said the DPWH, particularly project officer Macariola Bartolo, became stingy with information and updates on the construction of the flood control project since he began asking last year for copies of the contract and other documents and details about the project.

Oreta said he has ordered some stopgap measures to contain the flooding in low-lying barangays but city funds are not enough. What remains to be built, he said, the city cannot afford to shoulder.

No time for fault-finding

Ebdane said rather than assigning blame for the collapse of the dikes, he believes the correct course of action is to immediately conduct repair works.

“I have given instructions to DPWH-National Capital Region (NCR) regional director Edilberto Tayao to conduct emergency repairs on Catmon and look for a contractor who would be willing to undertake the job. At present, there is no funding allotted for this project but we would assure the contractor that we would pay them,” Ebdane said.

Bartolo said the breached section in Catmon is not covered by the flood control project, though the DPWH placed more than 4,000 sandbags and bamboo sticks to shore up the Catmon and Dampalit dikes. – With Evelyn Macairan