“Ang’s campaign is not a showpiece but a continuing mission anchored in environmental responsibility, engineering excellence, and empathy for affected communities”
WHEN typhoons unleash torrential rains over Metro Manila, one name now surfaces in conversations about real solutions to flooding: Ramon S. Ang.
For years, the San Miguel Corporation Chairman and CEO has been quietly but determinedly pushing a nationwide dredging and river rehabilitation initiative that is proving that action, not rhetoric, is what the country needs to end decades of water-borne misery. The results speak for themselves.
Through SMC’s Better Rivers PH initiative, a total of 8.6 million metric tons of silt and waste has been removed from 165 kilometers of waterways since 2020 translating into better water carrying capacities.
“For five years now, we have been cleaning rivers because flooding disrupts lives and the economy,” RSA said. “This is our way of contributing to long-term solutions that affect millions of Filipinos.”
Actually, it’s been three years since SMC and its team of dredgers completed the rehabilitation of the Tullahan River. Traversing the cities of Quezon, Caloocan, Valenzuela, Malabon and Navotas, the cleanup of the 27-kilometer river was the maiden project of SMC’s Better Rivers PH initiative launched in 2020.
Today, SMC has returned to desilt the Tullahan River anew. “It is not unexpected that silt and garbage have re-accumulated. Heavy rains have brought more erosion, and waste dumping continues. That’s why we really need to go back,” Ang said.
Meanwhile, in just the last two weeks, the Las Piñas River alone has yielded an astounding 30,000 tons of silt and solid waste under SMC’s Rivers Project.
That’s 30,000 tons of obstruction cleared—30,000 tons of potential flooding avoided. Las Piñas joins other major waterways such as the Pasig, Tullahan, and San Juan rivers, where SMC’s heavy equipment and dedicated teams have been working daily to restore flow, deepen channels, and remove accumulated debris that for decades has turned rivers into open sewers.
The Las Piñas phase—executed in partnership with Mayor Imelda Aguilar and the DPWH—marks another milestone. The volume of silt extracted in mere weeks shows the enormity of the problem, but also the effectiveness of decisive intervention.
Each truckload of silt removed is equivalent to less floodwater threatening homes, schools, and businesses in southern Metro Manila.
Walking the Talk
Ang’s campaign is not a showpiece. It’s a continuing mission anchored in environmental responsibility, engineering excellence, and empathy for affected communities.
While RSA has publicly offered to help solve Metro Manila’s flooding at no cost to the government, it takes more than what SMC can offer to solve the flooding problem.
More than ever, it needs the collaboration and coordination of national government agencies as well as local government units concerned.
It also demands cooperation from the local communities. We are aware that dredging is not a one-time solution as rivers continue to be receptacles of silt from the upstream and of garbage disposed of improperly. But it has been proven that dredging helps abate flooding.
While others talk about master plans and feasibility studies, Ang is out there “walking the talk”—deploying barges, backhoes, and dredgers to do the hard, messy work of unclogging rivers and floodways.
The results are tangible: improved water flow, reduced inundation in low-lying communities, and reclaimed riverbanks transformed into green spaces.
Flood Control with a Heart
Ang’s approach humanizes engineering. He believes infrastructure must first and foremost serve communities, particularly the poor who suffer the brunt of flooding. His field visits—often unannounced—demonstrate personal oversight and empathy rarely seen at the top corporate level.
When Ramon Ang says SMC will help solve flooding in Metro Manila, he means it. And the heavy equipment humming along Las Piñas River today is proof that he doesn’t wait for the next crisis to act.
As the dredging continues, and as thousands of tons of silt are lifted from our waterways, we are reminded that nation-building is not confined to boardrooms or speeches. Sometimes, it happens knee-deep in mud, guided by the conviction of a man who truly walks the talk
This is a testament of SMC’s long-term commitment to mitigating flooding through river cleanups. Aside from Tullahan, Pasig, San Juan, and Parañaque rivers, SMC has also cleaned up river systems in Bulacan, Laguna and Pampanga.
Let us therefore institutionalize dredging as a multi-year activity for the river basins nationwide as flooding is a problem not only in Metro Manila and provinces in Luzon. It has also become a perennial problem in other parts of the country down south especially during the onset of the rainy season.
Likewise, local government units and other agencies must strictly enforce solid waste disposal laws and regulations alongside ensuring that pumping stations which form part of the flood control infrastructure are operating.
Ghost Flood-Control Projects, A wake Up call
Moreover, the recent controversies over ghost flood-control projects should serve as a wakeup call to everyone: for government officials to remain true to the ideals of public service; for contractors to deliver contracted projects based on agreed specifications; and for the general public to be vigilant in ensuring taxes are spent properly.
It has been said that economic losses from flooding for the period 2023 to 2025 was at ₱42.3 to ₱118.5 billion, with job losses in the tens to hundreds of thousands.
There are some things worth considering to improve the country’s flood control program especially in the metropolitan area.
One is the adoption of a Metro Manila-Bulacan single water table plan whereby the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and the provincial/city LGUs publish one map with one schedule and one set of depth targets which would be updated quarterly.
Another is a long-term Operations and Maintenance following an established rule on threshold level of silt.
Discipline must be instilled in barangays. Those that keep waste out of feeder creeks earn priority on local flood-mitigation microprojects such as drains, sidewalks, and pocket parks.
With corruption scandals tainting flood control projects, academe, engineering societies, citizen auditors could act as validators to verify volumes dredged, depths achieved, and contracts delivered. The findings can be released using simple language.
RSA and SMC have shown us what can be achieved to lessen flooding. Let us give them their due. But the responsibility of a flood-free metropolis does not rest on their shoulders alone. It is a shared responsibility. We can govern as well as we dredge.
(The author, president/chief executive officer of Media Touchstone Ventures, Inc. and president/executive director of the Million Trees Foundation Inc., a non-government outfit advocating tree-planting and environmental protection, is the official biographer of President Fidel V. Ramos.)
