Floods in the Metro and suburbs are not only caused by constricted creeks and rivers, or worse, rivers that got taken over by massive urbanization.
It is not even because of climate change and discharge of record rainfall.
The more important reason flooding continues to get worse every passing year is corruption, prompting President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. to call them out “mahiya naman kayo!”, a call congressmen responded with big applause in his latest State of the Nation Address (SONA).
That applause from the solons did not only raise eyebrows; it caused the rise of blood pressures of many watching the SONA in their homes and offices, many furious enough to shout, “wala na talaga hiya itong mga congressmen.”
Over a trillion pesos had already been spent, mostly during the time of PBBM when flood control budget doubled, even tripled, while flood waters tripled in damage.
Looking for a credible explanation where the trillions for flood control money went, Senator Ping Lacson was quick to explain that 60 percent of flood control funds went to corruption.
As the nation grieved over the loss of hundreds of billions of flood control funds to corruption, hope shot up when a giant corporation, San Miguel Corporation (SMC), offered to clean waterways in the Metro Manila and suburbs at no cost at all to the government.
In a meeting with Laguna Governor Sol Aragones last August 11, SMC Chairman and CEO Ramon S. Ang offered to solve Laguna’s problem of flooding by widening and dredging major waterways, a solution proposed by Ang to local chief executives of the National Capital Region.
Ang said, “beyond dredging, we should also widen the rivers by 30 percent,” adding that this will be done at no cost to the government, saying further that SMC is not even asking for tax credits or any form of compensation.
Better Rivers example
SMC has done this in Laguna.
Ramon Ang’s offer is not all air. He has all the bragging rights to say this, after spending billions dredging rivers in San Pedro and Binan cities in Laguna and in some towns and cities in Bulacan.
Look at the impressive record in Laguna province, where SMC's “Better Rivers PH” initiative has cleared over 500,000 metric tons of silt and solid waste along three major waterways in the province’s first district since it started operations in the province in 2023.
These include the San Isidro River, San Pedro’s primary waterway, where 417,044 tons of silt and waste material had been removed; the Biñan River in Biñan City, Laguna (87,899 tons removed); and the Tunasan River at the boundary of San Pedro City and Muntinlupa City (53,774 tons removed).
This, Ang noted, was one of the reasons flooding at certain areas in San Pedro and Biñan cities never exceeded the anticipated level of flooding that authorities had come to expect during the rainy season.
"Nung nilinis namin ‘yung mga ilog na ‘yon, napansin niyo na wala nang baha sa SLEX noong last typhoon nitong 2025,” he told Aragones.
Root cause
For Ray Junia, convenor of the Institute for Consumer Research and Empowerment (ICORE), Ang’s call to widen up major waterways in Laguna province hits home on the root cause of flooding in major subdivisions in the province.
To recall, he had called on LGUs in the 1st and 2nd district of Laguna to do an assessment on the waterways and creeks that were built up, covered or narrowed during the boom on the construction of major residential, commercial and industrial complexes that started in the 1970’s.
Junia, a resident of Barangay Pacita 1 – one such area in San Pedro City that has seen its share of flooding during the rainy season – has sent a letter to San Pedro City Art Mercado underscoring the importance of reviewing “old maps” of the waterways that were present before the so-called “subdivision boom” in the city.
“We believe that flood control measures must go beyond simply clearing or dredging our waterways. It is our conviction that your administration must address the issue of canals and rivers that were narrowed or even covered up in past decades due to the runaway urban development in our city, beginning in the 1970s and 1980s,” he stressed in the letter.
“This is part of our advocacy paper’s call to action for all concerned local and national government agencies to undo the mistakes of the past and push forward with genuine solutions that will address the long-term issue of flooding in our city,” he added.
Meanwhile, the ICORE convenor also expressed his support to a resolution filed by Biñan City Representative Walfredo “Arman” Dimaguila, Jr., which seeks to revive a scrapped 2010 program to dredge Laguna de Bay.
Junia asserted that as the “catchbasin” of rainwater during the rainy season, Laguna de Bay’s capacity for receiving rainwater needed to be expanded to complement SMC’s efforts to widen major waterways in the province.
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