MMDA taps 300 workers to begin declogging ops

MANILA, Philippines - The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) on Monday mobilized more than 300 workers to conduct intensified simultaneous rescue and declogging operations in flood-hit areas in Metro Manila.

MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino said the agency personnel will provide all the necessary assistance they can to affected areas.

Deployed were rescue teams from the MMDA's Road Emergency Group (REG), Sidewalk Clearing Operations Group (SCOG), Public Safety Division, and Flood Control and Sewerage Management Office (FCSMO).

"We have also deployed heavy equipment and mobile water pumps to facilitate the immediate receding of floods as well as provided ‘Libreng Sakay’ operations to passengers along Pasay Taft, España in Manila, and Sucat in Parañaque,” Tolentino said.

The mobile water pumps are stationed in critical areas such as P. Burgos in Manila, EDSA Taft, Buendia – South Super Highway, and SM Sucat.

Meanwhile, the MMDA has also deployed two elite rescue teams to help flood-hit villages in Zambales, especially in Barangay Wawandue where a landslide killed at least four persons.

Dispatched were 20 members of the Public Safety Division (PSD) and Rescue Battalion after Subic Mayor Jay Khonghun asked for help in evacuating hundreds of affected residents in submerged villages.

"We have deployed two teams in Subic and Olongapo to assist in the rescue and relief operations. They will be coordinating with the municipal and provincial government,” Tolentino said.

The 20-member MMDA contingent is equipped with necessary disaster response equipment and gears such as rubber boats and other landslide equipment to evacuate residents from flooded areas. The same rescuers were deployed last year when an earthquake hit Negros Oriental.

Olongapo City has declared a state of calamity after continuous rains caused the highest levels of flood in the city’s history.

Among the villages in Olongapo City worst hit by floods are Sta. Rita, Old Cabalan, and Banicain, where residents were forced to take the roofs of their houses because of neck-deep floodwaters.

Barangays San Isidro and Naugsol and most of the major roads in Subic town are now impassable.