The recent monsoon rains experienced over Metro Manila and surrounding areas have given San Pedro City, Laguna more than enough reason to thank business conglomerate San Miguel Corporation (SMC).
The reason: the waters at the San Isidro River, the city’s main waterway, never rose beyond the orange level – in sharp contrast with Metro Manila, which experienced “Ondoy”-like flood levels.
All thanks to an ongoing program SMC has conducted since last year to dredge San Isidro River, a corporate social responsibility (CSR) project that is now reaping its benefits for San Pedrenses.
‘Biggest CSR program’
Since August 2023, SMC, in partnership with the local government of San Pedro City under Mayor Art Mercado, has conducted continuous dredging operations along San Isidro River.
The initiative was part of SMC’s “Adopt-A-River” program, which officials led by President and CEO Ramon S. Ang hailed as the country’s “biggest and most impactful” CSR project.
The project also comes after the business conglomerate launched its landmark river cleanup and flood mitigation initiative that has led to the removal of over three million metric tons of silt and solid wastes from the Pasig, Tullahan, and San Juan rivers in Metro Manila – an initiative that SMC gave over P3 billion of its own funds for.
“This initiative is unlike anything we have seen before. It is perhaps the most extensive environmental effort involving both government and the private sector. In one decisive move, we are cleaning up many major rivers and waterways. We are doing this as a public service, at no cost to the government or taxpayers,” Ang said in a press release issued last October 2023.
The business tycoon added that cleaning up San Isidro River, among other waterways, will contribute to SMC’s own efforts to restore the ecology of the Pasig River network.
“It is important to understand that cleaning up rivers is not a quick fix. It is a very important step in the river restoration process. It paves the way for polluted waterways to heal,” he said.
Aside from the San Isidro River, SMC’s “Adopt-A-River” project also included river systems in Bulacan, Pampanga, Cavite, and the CAMANAVA area.
Updates
According to data provided by the city government of San Pedro to OpinYon Laguna, SMC has allocated “six to eight” backhoes, as well as a barge and a dump truck to facilitate the dredging progress.
From August 2023 to July 2024, the dredging project has so far succeeded in removing 407,019 cubic meters of silt and solid waste from the San Pedro River.
Sources close to SMC added that the private conglomerate had, to date, had spent at least P200 million in the San Isidro River dredging project alone.
The benefits of this project were not lost to city officials who noted a “fast subsidence” of flooding along the San Isidro River and other waterways in San Pedro City, which undoubtedly contributed to the small number of families that had to be evacuated due to monsoon rains.
“Salamat sa tuluy-tuloy na dredging ng San Miguel, hindi po umabot sa orange level ang San Isidro River ngayong taon, di tulad noong bagyong 'Paeng' na nag-overflow ang ilog," Nico Pavino, head of the San Pedro City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (CDRRMO), reported to OpinYon Laguna.
That SMC is willing to spend millions in its own funds to rehabilitate Mega Manila’s major waterways speaks to its genuine commitment to ensure a metropolis that will be free of the danger of flooding, especially with the effects of climate change.
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