Amid all the political bickering on the gigantic corruption surrounding flood-control projects, one man was silently doing the job many wished the government had done.
We are talking about business tycoon Ramon S. Ang of San Miguel Corporation (SMC), who has quietly expanded the reach of his “Better Rivers PH” initiative.
The next target: Landayan River in San Pedro City, Laguna, an area where residents had long complained of perennial floods during the rainy season.
No publicity
Note that while politicians have made excessive noise and endless publicity stunts concerning flood-control projects that turned out to be substandard (or worse, non-existent), Ang’s Better Rivers PH, his flagship corporate social responsibility (CSR) program, had accomplished all that and more with the barest amount of publicity.
In fact, if not for a post on the Better Rivers PH social media last October 9, San Pedrenses wouldn’t have learned that the initiative has expanded to the Landayan River since last September 10.
The brief post said just the barest facts: “So far, we have remove [sic] over 9,300 tons of silt and waste from a 180-meter stretch and the river’s mouth since our cleanup started.”
But for residents of Barangay Landayan who have long accepted flooding as a fact of life during the rainy season, this is a very welcome development.
Better Rivers PH’s quiet, yet impactful inclusion of the Landayan River have once again brought hope to residents who, this year alone, had to endure months of flooding after the week-long monsoon rains that pummeled Laguna province last July.
Total impact
So far, Better Rivers PH has removed a total of 568,000 tons of silt and waste from three rivers in Laguna province (Biñan, San Isidro and Tunasan Rivers) since the project started operations in Laguna in August 2023.
Aside from this, SMC has also conducted “maintenance cleanup” at the San Isidro River from July to August, where another 60,000 tons of silt and waste were removed from the river.
“Much of the siltation and garbage comes from upstream areas as far as Cavite, and are washed into the rivers by typhoons and heavy rainfall,” Better Rivers PH noted in its social media page.
The extensive cleanup of the San Isidro and Biñan Rivers has been cited as one of the reasons why flooding near their banks never exceeded the feared “Red Alert” levels reported in past years.
No cost
Better Rivers PH’s expanded reach mirrors the pledge made by Ang to Laguna Governor Sol Aragones back in August, to help solve Laguna’s problem of flooding through widening and dredging its major waterways.
"We will sign a memorandum of agreement with Governor Sol Aragones to widen all rivers of Laguna. Ang aim natin ay ma-solve ang flooding problem ng Laguna (Our aim is to solve Laguna's flooding problem) for the next 50 years," Ang had said at the time.
As part of these initiatives, Ang said major waterways in Laguna province will not just be dredged, but also widened by up to 30 percent.
The plan will also see all rivers in the province regularly maintained.
"At no cost to the government, provincial or national. We are not even asking for a tax credit or any form of compensation. Zero. No cost to the government," he emphasized.
Aside from the Landayan River, SMC has also started cleanup operations at the Alabang River in Muntinlupa City and the Las Piñas River.
Since the Better Rivers PH initiative started in 2020 at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, it has removed over 8.6 million metric tons of silt and waste from 166 kilometers of river channels in Metro Manila and nearby provinces.
#WeTakeAStand #OpinYon #OpinYonNews #SanMiguelCorporation #BetterRiversPH