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Compel BF to explain ‘idle’ flood warning system, Palace asked

10/13/2009

Metro Manila residents yesterday urged Malacañang to compel Bayani Fernando, chairman of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), to explain further why he left to waste the P1.1-billion flood warning system the government procured in 2001 thru a Japanese loan, a system that could have mitigated the impact of the recent devastating floods that hit eastern Mega Manila.

The residents made the urging after Fernando insisted that the system was already “obsolete,” implying that it would not serve its purpose at all even if it was put to use.

“These were grants from Japan during the administration of the late President Ferdinand Marcos. (The system is) already obsolete. What everybody should do now is return first to normalcy before technical matters are considered,” Fernando said in reaction to a news item quoting Malacañang that it would ask to explain about the system.

On Saturday, Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said Palace officials were “asking Chairman Fernando to explain this both to the public and to the Cabinet to the satisfaction of all because this is a serious issue indeed.”

The issue was indeed so serious that Metro Manila residents, particularly those in the cities of Marikina, Pasig and Taguig, and the town of Pateros — all in Metro Manila — as well as the flood victims in the towns of Rodriguez, San Mateo, Cainta, Angono and Binangonan — all in Rizal province — were entertaining the thought they would not be in their present situation had the warning system been put into good use.

Newsbreak magazine first broke the news on the existence of the flood warning system lying idle in the MMDA offices. Quoting its own sources, Newsbreak said Fernando let the equipment remain idle as its maintenance cost would far outweigh its benefits.

The flood warning system in Metro Manila, procured through the Effective Flood Control Operation System of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), was handed over to MMDA in 2002, when DPWH also turned over to MMDA its flood-control responsibility.

The warning system was supposed to alert authorities about the need to divert water from the Rosario Weir to the Laguna Lake for temporary storage or into the Manggahan floodway, which was designed to mitigate flooding from the lower Marikina and Pasig rivers. The first phase of the system project, worth P600 million, was completed in 1992. Its second phase, costing P500 million through grant from the Japan International Cooperation Agency, was completed in 2001.