Senator Panfilo Lacson might again seek to delete more than P16-billion right-of-way funding under the Department of Public Works and Highways proposed budget next year, which he said can be a source of the so-called pork barrel.
He warned that the fund, which can also be called a pork barrel, could be used as another source of funding for projects of legislators. He said the fund was lumped at the DPWH’s central office.
The Supreme Court earlier ruled as “unconstitutional” Congress’ Priority Development Assistance Funds, commonly known as pork barrel.
“Sa 2019, ang nakalagay dun parang P16 bilyon. Isang P10 billion at saka isang P6 bilyon,” said Lacson in an interview after the Senate Finance committee deliberations on the budget of the DPWH.
“We’ll ask for their deletion because last year they were restored. Many of them were insertions by congressmen” he said.
But tshe senator said he would first ask the DPWH to submit the details of the P16-billion ROW funding, saying it’s not clear.
Senator Nancy Binay also urged DPWH to stop its localized patchwork approach to address flooding, and instead come up with an integrated flood management plan for the country.
Binay said because of the advent of climate change and rapid urbanization, it has become necessary for DPWH—being the government agency in charge of flood management—to create a fully national-level flood management plan that will integrate and rationalize the various flood plans of local government units.
“Now, DPWH js focused on flood control management plan in urban flooding and not too much on rural flooding. The focus was too localized and when habagat or a typhoon came, it’s true that there’s no flooding in other areas, but the floods went to the nearby areas,” he said.
Binay said she understands that the DPWH needs to address the decades-long problem of flooding in Metro Manila as well as those in other major cities. However, the DPWH’s “retail approach” to providing solutions to flooding has left out nearby provinces that are equally vulnerable to flood.
Binay went to Bocaue, Bulacan last August to visit several barangays that are still submerged in floodwater.
Metro Manila has an allotted P352-billion budget spread in 23 years. Since the approval of DPWH’s flood control plans for the metropolis in 2012, no major infrastructure like the P198-billion Pasig-Marikina-River Improvement and Dam project has been started.
Likewise, the MMDA failed to complete 47 flood control projects worth P337.5 million, as out of the 68 projects amounting to P459 million, only 21 projects were implemented in 2017.
“In these extreme times, we cannot divorce flooding from the rain. Aside from the localized flood control plan, a collaborative approach with respect to risk scenarios is a must on the national level.”
“We need to project and examine how climate change will impact in the next 25 to 50 years under extreme conditions, how this would change risk and hazard patterns aggravated by rapid urbanization, the mounting garbage problems, unregulated land use and environmental abuse.”
“We need to have a national level flood management plan which will reflect every local condition and unique climatic experiences for the past 50 years. An integrated system that will identify and correct the gaps as far as infrastructure, policies, procedures, and protocols are concerned—with flood emergency planning and DRRM mainstreamed in every government level,” Binay said.
She added that the Integrated National Flood Management Plan should consider existing and future land uses and incorporating water uses that would deal with adaptive strategies in rural-urban flood management to meet critical health issues like safe drinking water, sewage and wastewater disposal and addressing the effects of floodwater on water quality.
In a critically changing global climate, she said the challenges abound. Environmental policies and governance play a big role in addressing the problem. Eventually, the impact of flooding will spill over to the lack of clean water, food security, pandemic, and economic paralysis.
This is why elevating the flood plan paradigm to a national level is necessary in order to enhance the capacity of the LGUs in a collaborative approach to encompass the vulnerability of other provinces to flooding.
“At the moment, let us strengthen the general adaptive-capacity of LGUs and barangays to adapt to storm-induced floods in order to remain resilient even during extreme climatic events, or in the short term, to deal with periodic flooding, flood preparedness, and mitigation systems,” Binay added.