Floods

Almost always, when it rains, the ancient town of Bulakan in Bulacan province gets flooded.  

Bulakan, the future airport town, was founded in 1575, 54 years after Magellan landed in Cebu. It has always been a coastal, river town and literally a fish pond. People there commute by bancas, not by cars. Even today.  

Per Wikipedia, Bulakan, the town, and Bulacan, the province, are from half a meter to four meters below sea level, at any given time. Even if there is no rain, there is always flooding.

Yet, Ramon S. Ang, the chair and CEO of San Miguel Corp., almost always gets blamed for Bulacan’s flooding. Why?

Because RSA is building a super modern airport costing P735 billion on a 2,500-hectare area of the town. Allegedly, the airport disturbed the topography of the place – meaning it diverted or disturbed the town’s natural river flows. The rivers were choked on their way to Manila Bay, it is claimed.

Lowland elevation, narrow and winding rivers and low bridges are to blame for floods in the coastal municipality of Bulakan and not the New Manila International Airport (NMIA), says SMC.  

To cope with the floods, RSA does two things:

First, he elevates the Philippines’ future premier airport to more than six meters above sea level—more than the height of a two-story building.

Second, he cleans the rivers. SMC is spending billions – up to P3 billion – to clean rivers around Metro Manila and those in surrounding provinces.

Explains Ramon: “The Bulacan shoreline is a sea-level fishpond. The Bulacan Airport is like an island in Manila Bay on the Bulacan shoreline. It has six-meter-plus above sea level elevation.”

However, one can only do so much given climate change, rapid increase in population and their garbage and urban sprawl. Climate change means the rains that usually accumulate in six months can come down in just one day. The result, of course, is massive flooding.  

Exploding population means an overburdened ecosystem suitable only to feeding small villages like Bulakan town (population: 83,000).

The flooding is made worse by Bulacan province’s having among the most corrupt and greedy officials ever to appear on the national stage. 

When P1 trillion of flood control money was being stolen in the past three years, Bulacan politicians and their syndicated thievery co-partners (the DPWH engineers who are also Bulakeños), were there at the forefront. They stole massively even while reciting nice passages from the Bible. Like saying the floods were a manna from heaven. 

A noisy senator south of Makati is also wont to quoting Bible passages. Besieged lately, Alan Peter Cayetano quotes Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

As it turns out, the plans include reclamation of Laguna Lake and flood control plans around Taguig. 

When a government official thinks of reclamation and flood control, you think of commissions and kickbacks.  

Cayetano’s political nemesis, Sen. Panfilo Lacson, has submitted evidence of alleged irregularities in infrastructure and reclamation projects in Taguig, the Cayetanos’ home city. That makes Alan C. liable to plunder, a non-bailable offense.

Back to Bulacan.

Obet Rodrigo, a resident of Bulakan’s Cupang Maysantol and one of the conveners of Kilos Bulacan, a coalition of 34 anti-airport groups, had blamed SMC’s airport for allegedly blocking all the rivers in the town which supposedly triggered the backflow of water that routinely floods his community.

“Water flows in all directions and does not look for geographical boundaries. Look at (the Bulacan towns of) Guiguinto and Balagtas, their waterways should flow down to the Taliptip river. The waters from Sta. Maria (town), the City of San Jose del Monte, Obando (town) and the City of Meycauayan should flow towards Tawiran (barangay), in the boundary of our town and Obando, but the waters have been blocked,” Rodrigo claimed.

Retorts RSA: “Bulakan (lands are) really low. Even when there is no rain, many areas there are flooded (because of the tidal waters from Manila Bay). Even bridges are also low, and houses are built along the rivers and (are) serving as river blockade. Roads are being upgraded but not the residential areas.”

SMC wants to elevate the residential areas: “If we would be allowed in partnership with the local government, we would upgrade the low-lying areas where the houses are situated. By area, alisin muna natin ang bahay, tambakan natin at saka natin sila pabalikin (we would remove the houses, backfill to elevate the land and then we bring back the houses),” Ang said.

“The Bulacan airport (in Bulakan) is beside the Manila Bay and is surrounded by big rivers and these rivers around (the future airport and economic suburb) have water level gauges. The waters there do not rise, meaning that is not causing flood,” Ang explained. The New Manila International Airport project site was solid ground “before it was turned into fishponds,” he said.

The SMC CEO explains: “Years later, we acquired them and we refilled them with soil again. Bulakan town was originally proposed for an airport by the late former Bulacan representative Teodulo Natividad. The area is the best location, the best site for an airport because of the wind direction. Other areas have crosswind but not the site in Bulakan. The place has Ang also dismissed claims that SMC had blocked three river systems in building the airport. 

“There is no truth to what our rivals and enemies in business are saying. They are just merely rumors and are not true. I did show you the video of the location of the airport, the maps, the cleaning and clearing we did. But here comes one person starting rumors that the airport is not a good project. The (individual who is) against the project is hiding under a fake name. That is AI, making up stories,” he said.

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