Forgotten laws against flooding

“Magpaka-Robredo ka.” Inspired by the deceased Jesse Robredo’s feats in public office, a marketing man coined the phrase to convey good governance.

“Be like Robredo.” Be honest where others can’t. Excel where most can only be middling. Be accountable where others prefer impunity. Swim against the tide of rot that swallows up the rest. Be modest where most proclaim false deeds.

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Hardly had the ink dried on Maria Lourdes Aranal-Sereno’s selection as Chief Justice when her bashers came out swinging. Yet, what would they get out of it? The President has made his choice. Sereno has accepted the challenge to devote the next 18 years of her life to reforming the Judiciary. She’s been judged the most fitting for the job that requires competence, integrity, probity and independence. Best to help her instill transparency in Judiciary funds, undo patently wrong Supreme Court rulings, and restore respectability in magistracy.

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The sun is shining again over most of the country. Government officials can perhaps view the recent devastating floods in brighter light. Before they propose anything grand, they might first inventory existing laws to prevent recurrence. No need to reinvent the wheel here. Like:

(1) In September 1973 Ferdinand Marcos issued Presidential Decree 296. Title: “Directing all persons, natural or juridical, to renounce possession and move out of portions of rivers, creeks, esteros, drainage channels, and other similar waterways encroached upon by them, and prescribing penalty for violation hereof.”

PD 296 prefaced with: “Floods lead to misery, pestilence, privation, hunger and want.” It pinpointed floods to be “to a great extent caused by unabated illegal encroachments on (water) channels.”

Not poor riverside squatters but rich lot owners and factories were targeted. The latter “have enlarg(ed) the areas covered by titles or certificates of ownership brought about by consolidation and subdivision surveys and resurveys.” So, “such portions of the public domain illegally acquired must be returned to the State.”

Violators were given 90 days to demolish then vacate their illegal obstructions. Refusal meant a fine of P5,000-P10,000 and imprisonment of two to ten years. For corporations the officers bore the penalties.

(2) Did the Lina Law repeal PD 296? No. That Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992 (R.A. 7279) reiterated the power of the State to evict encroachers, for “public safety.” It sought to crush professional squatters and syndicates. It only added that, in cases of verified poor squatters, the government must provide relocation.

The law mandated the formulation of a National Urban Development and Housing Framework. National and local officials were cautioned against haphazard, and required to plan, urbanization.

(3) There is also the Revised Forestry Code (PD 705) of May 1975. It not only protects forests from denudation, but also orders massive rehab of over-logged areas.

Mountainsides and foothills were declared off limits to mining, industrial, commercial, religious or residential subdivision. No land of the public domain 18 percent (12 degrees) in slope or over shall be alienable and disposable. All lands previously declared alienable and disposable were reverted to forestlands.

Even if below 18 percent in slope, certain lands also were declared for forest purposes. Among these are 20-meter strips of land along both sides of rivers and streams, from the normal high waterline. Also, strips of mangrove at least 20 meters wide facing oceans, and strips of land or swamps at least 20 meters wide facing lakes.

(4) The Water Code of the Philippines (PD 1067) was issued in December 1976. It revised and consolidated all the laws on ownership, appropriation, use, development, conservation, and protection of water sources and waterways.

Resources were delineated for household, municipal, irrigation, power generation, fisheries and livestock, industrial and recreational use.

Penalties were set — up to P3,000 plus three years’ imprisonment — for those who obstruct, pollute, and clog waterways.

Based on this Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson can blast fish pens, factories, shops and domiciles on esteros. Also, for Metro Manila, Laguna and Rizal authorities to relocate 195,000 families — nearly a million people — from riversides and the lakeshores of Laguna de Bay.

(One such illegal structure is a three-door apartment on the creek bed behind Martha and Maria Fatima Streets, Congress Park, within Doña Carmen Subdivision, Barangay Commonwealth, Quezon City. Construction stopped when, alerted by my first report of the anomaly a year ago, City Hall inspectors arrived. It resumed when the builder saw the coast was clear. Another elongated house spans the creek like a bridge.)

(5) Little known is R.A. 6716, the Water Well, Rainwater Collector, and Spring Development Act of July 2010. It compels all 42,000 barangays nationwide to construct new or repair old water wells, dig rainwater catchments, and unclog springs. Rainwater would be collected in the lowest parts of the barangay, for harvest for irrigation, cleanups, or whatever purpose.

Environment lawyer Tony Oposa has been shouting himself hoarse for barangays to implement the law once and for all. For those who fear that the rainwater catchments might breed dengue mosquitoes: cover them as you would gray-water cisterns, or put in tilapia and other fish that feed on insect larvae. Digging a thigh-deep, 20-square-meter catchment takes two men only two days. Definitely easier, Oposa says, than for 100 million Filipinos to learn to breath underwater.

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