Residents of San Pedro and Biñan cities in Laguna are now paying the awful price of the lack of regulatory oversight during the urban boom from the 1980’s onwards.
That price: heavy flooding inside residential subdivisions in the two cities, which prompted local government units to conduct regular drives to clean up clogged waterways and esteros in these areas.
And some sectors say the ideal solution to alleviating this problem is simple, but requires political will: bringing back the old waterways that had been filled up or built under during the rush to build subdivisions in San Pedro City.
Flooding has reached interior subdivisions
While in the past, flooding in San Pedro City has been confined to its coastal barangays near Laguna de Bay, in recent years, not even the private subdivisions that had been built during the 1980’s onwards had been spared from sudden surges during the rainy season.
In the past few weeks, residents of Pacita Complex, one of the city’s largest residential subdivisions, as well as Rosario Complex and nearby Juana Subdivision in Biñan City, also found themselves in wading in floodwaters that in some areas reached almost knee-deep.
While some pointed out that the waters immediately receded after a few hours, longtime residents noted that the intensity of the floods had reached a level not previously experienced before.
Executive order
The series of floods that had plagued portions of San Pedro City – and the public clamor for solutions – has reportedly “pressured” the local government to finally do something.
On July 2, Mayor Art Mercado issued an executive order mandating all barangay officials to conduct regular cleanups of clogged esteros, creeks and waterways every second and fourth Saturday of the month starting July 5.
“Alam po naming lahat ang mga balitang lumalabas, mga lugar na kahit maikling ulan lang ay agad nang binabaha. At dinidinig po namin ang inyong mga hinaing. Kami po ng buong City Government ay kumikilos upang mabigyan ng solusyon ang problema. Simula pa lang ito ng serye ng mga hakbang para tugunan ang problemang nagpapahirap sa ating komunidad,” Mercado said in a social media post.
Meanwhile, OpinYon Laguna has received reports from sources inside City Hall that a few officials whose job is it to maintain the city’s infrastructure, including flood control, were allegedly dismissed from their jobs due to “underperformance.”
Back to basics
But for Ray Junia, chairman of the Institute for Consumer Research and Empowerment (ICORE) and a longtime resident of Pacita Complex, what is required to alleviate the problem of flooding in Laguna’s 1st district is, literally, going back to basics.
Junia argued that the local governments should look at the old maps and blueprints (before the rush to build residential and commercial establishments in the 1980’s and 1990’s) and identify which waterways had been covered up or built under when the subdivisions were built.
“Sa totoo lang, kung ginampanan lang ng lokal na pamahalaan ng San Pedro ang tungkulin nito noong nagtatayuan ng mga subdivision dito sa atin, we would never have this problem of flooding in the first place,” he said.
Pertinent laws
Junia cited Article 51 of Presidential Decree No. 1067 (Water Code of the Philippines), which set the limits over which real estate developers can build structures near established waterways such as creeks and esteros.
Under that provision, waterways are subject to a public use easement, which means that no one can build structures within a certain distance from the water.
That same article sets the easement as three meters in urban areas, 20 meters in agricultural areas, and 40 meters in forest areas.
While the National Building Code does not specify a universal standard for creek setbacks, it obligates building officials and property owners to observe local ordinances designed to protect natural waterways.
The Local Government Code (Republic Act No. 7160) also gives LGUs regulatory authority (through enacting ordinances) over zoning, land use, and local environmental concerns.
But, Junia added, those provisions had been ignored or even circumvented by real estate developers who had tried to maximize the allocated space when San Pedro City experienced this boom in subdivision-building.
"Ang ginawa ng karamihan sa kanila, kung hindi tinabunan ang mga creek at estero ay tinayuan ang mga ito ng mga bahay o establisyimento. At yung ipinalit nilang mga drainage system, gaya dito sa Pacita Complex, e hindi na kaya ang dalas at bigat ng pag-uulan na nararanasan natin ngayon,” he said.
Political will
“Taking back” the waterways that had been filled up or covered under – not to mention demolishing the “illegal” structures that had been built over them – will take an incredible amount of political will, Junia has acknowledged.
But those steps, he argued, will send a strong message to big business that the incumbent administration is serious not only in rectifying the faults of past local governments but in ensuring that San Pedro City will remain a safe haven for the thousands of residents who now consider the city as their home.
“Deserve ng mga San Pedrense ang isang ligtas na tahanan. Sa kasong ito, ang ibig nating sabihin ng ligtas na tahanan ay yung hindi sila natatakot na baka pasukin ng tubig ang kanilang mga bahay tuwing tag-ulan. And the local government must act now, and with decisiveness, upang masiguro natin ito,” Junia asserted.
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