Bulacan town in trouble due to cancelled DAP

MALOLOS CITY, Philippines – The cancellation of funds sourced from the controversial Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) left residents of Obando, Bulacan in trouble as the P3-billion Valenzuela-Obando-Meycauayan (VOM) flood control project is still not finished.

Obando Mayor Edwin Santos said at least 80 percent of the multibillion-peso flood control project has been completed and residents living near the completed part of the project are benefiting from it.

However, others – including employees of the municipal government – are still suffering from floods. He said they have to wear boots while working. 

Santos said it hardly rained in the last two days and yet the municipal building of Obando is flooded by seawater.

He said the VOM project was stopped after DAP was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

Aside from the municipal building, other villages in the town – Barangay Panghulo, Tawiran and Paliwas – were also flooded.

“We are calling on President Aquino to complete the flood control project,” Santos said. 

The coastal towns of Bulakan, Paombong and Hagonoy and Malolos City suffer the same situation during the rainy season. Experts said perennial flooding in these coastal towns is due to climate change.

They said aside from the rise of seawater, land subsidence has been observed along the coastal area of Bulacan down to Pampanga and Bataan.