Biñan City, Laguna Mayor Arman Dimaguila himself can concede that the issue of flooding in the city’s coastal barangays is something his administration can’t fix overnight.
“Ang isyu po talaga kasi dito is yung level ng tubig sa Laguna Lake, dahil kakaunti na lang ang capacity ng ating lawa,” was how Dimaguila himself put it at a press conference last September 16. “Kapag sobrang lakas po ng ulan, lahat po ng tubig na galing sa atin ay pupunta sa Laguna Lake, so ang nangyayari po ay talagang babahain tayo sa Biñan, San Pedro, at Santa Rosa.”
But that does not mean that Dimaguila will just shrug the problem off and do nothing to mitigate the problem.
Quite the reverse, in fact – his administration is committed to do everything in its power to mitigate, if not solve outright, the issue of perennial flooding in the city.
And this time, Dimaguila has been assisted by an unusual source: the private sector, in the form of business conglomerate San Miguel Corporation (SMC).
Tree-growing activity
Last September 16, Dimaguila joined Vice Mayor Gel Alonte, Councilor Christopher “Toppe” Alba, and other city officials in a “tree-growing” activity led by the Civil Service Commission (CSC) at the Biñan City Esplanade in Barangay dela Paz.
The activity is part of a nationwide tree-growing campaign spearheaded by the CSC under Chairperson Karlo Nograles for the celebration of the 124th anniversary of the establishment of civil service in the Philippines.
City officials estimated that around 1,200 tree seedlings were planted during the activity, in which 600 employees of the Biñan City LGU participated.
The Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) led by General Manager Atty. Senando Santiago also participated in the activity.
"This will not be a one-time, big-time effort. Tuluy-tuloy po ang programa na ito, in cooperation with the civil servants of the LGUs along Laguna de Bay and also with the non-governmental organizations," Santiago pointed out during the press conference held after the activity.
Meanwhile, Dimaguila pledged that the City Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) will conduct regular monitoring of the trees planted during the event.
“Tayo po ang mag-aalaga ng mga puno na ating itinanim dito. In fact, perfect nga po ang location ng Biñan City Esplanade. At imagine rin ninyo, tayo ang nagsimula, sino po ang makikinabang? Pero kung walang magsisimula, walang aasahan ang susunod na henerasyon, so kinakailangan po talagang magtanim at alagaan ang mga punong itinanim dito,” the mayor pointed out.
Aside from the Biñan City Esplanade, Dimaguila also bared plans to conduct tree-growing activities at the shoreline along Barangays Dela Paz and Malaban, as well as other open spaces in Biñan City, as a way of mitigating the increasingly extreme effects of climate change.
Unusual assistance from SMC
It was also during the program that the Biñan City LGU recognized the little-known part played by San Miguel Corporation in helping solve the problem of flooding in Biñan City.
Like a similar program currently being conducted in San Pedro City’s San Isidro River, SMC has also been assisting the local government in dredging the Biñan River, the city’s main waterway, Dimaguila disclosed.
This the mayor cited as one of the main reasons flooding along communities near the Biñan River immediately receded during the recent rains brought by typhoon “Enteng.”
In an exclusive interview with OpinYon Laguna, Dimaguila added that it was SMC Chairman and CEO Ramon Ang himself who volunteered to provide the necessary manpower and equipment – six barges in all – to dredge the Biñan River.
Continuous dredging
While the city government has already conducted continuous dredging operations along the river, silt from the river still clogs the mouth of the Biñan River near the barangays of Dela Paz and Malaban.
One week before typhoon “Enteng” battered Laguna province, Dimaguila continued, Ang himself called the city government and offered them the barges and equipment necessary to remove the silt from the mouth of the Biñan River.
“Sa ngayon, mga 500 meters na po ng Biñan River ang nahukay ng mga barge ng SMC; sa tantiya ko po, mga 200 to 300 cubic meters na po ang kanilang na-dredge. At ang commitment po nila ay six months ang itatagal nila sa ilog para hukayin ito,” the city mayor added.
Dimaguila said the city government is “grateful” to the assistance provided by SMC to the city government, which meant a big deal to their efforts to help mitigate the problem of flooding in Biñan City.
“Ang maganda sa SMC ay wala silang hinihingi na kahit anong kapalit. Ang hiningi lang po sa atin ay ang paghingi ng permiso sa Philippine Coast Guard para makadaan ang kanilang mga barge sa lugar natin, tapos sasabihan pa ang LLDA about this project of theirs,” he related.
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