'Errata' projects

COMMONSENSE

- MARICHU A. VILLANUEVA

If there is a genuine champion in Congress for flood control projects, it would be Navotas City Rep. Toby Tiangco. Before his congressional stint for three consecutive terms, Tiangco served as the mayor of Navotas City, which is known as one of the most flood-prone cities in our country. Surrounded by Manila Bay and the Navotas-Malabon River, the city of Navotas is most vulnerable to severe flooding risks during typhoons, heavy monsoon rains and tidal inundations.

Now on his second term in the 20th Congress, Tiangco credited the 22-year-old KAMANAVA (Kaloocan-Malabon-Navotas-Valenzuela) Flood Control Project as a model program of well implemented foreign-assisted projects (FAP) that was undertaken according to design and specifications. It was funded under highly concessional loans from Japan's Special Yen Loan Package granted to the Philippines by the late Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi.

"Flood control is very personal to me. This project reduced flooding in Navotas from 160 days a year to just three to five days. But with climate change, we need to ensure our defenses are stronger," Tiangco pointed out.

Speaking at the Kapihan sa Manila Bay news forum last Wednesday, Tiangco thanked President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. (PBBM) for directing the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to look for funds in the rehabilitation of this project. Tiangco recalled PBBM issued this directive to DPWH Secretary Manuel Bonoan during an inspection visit in Navotas after the most recent flooding due to typhoons that coincided with the high tide and habagat rains.