President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. on Friday inaugurated a large-scale dredging and cleaning campaign across Metro Cebu’s waterways, saying decades of neglect left rivers shallow and clogged, a problem he vowed to fix when he first launched ‘Oplan Kontra Baha’ in Metro Manila earlier this month.
At Mahiga Creek, Mr. Marcos said local officials could not recall the last time major rivers and creeks were dredged.
“Backhoes are already resting on dry ground, the water has become so shallow because of buildup,” he said, adding that the cleanup could prevent floods during the next rainy season.
The Cebu rollout follows the first Oplan Kontra Baha launch in Metro Manila on Nov. 12, when President Marcos oversaw clearing operations along Balihatar Creek in Parañaque City.
That initiative deployed hundreds of heavy equipment units to desilt over 140 kilometers of waterways and 330 kilometers of drainage systems, addressing long-standing blockages that had worsened flooding in the capital.
President Marcos noted that Cebu faces the same issues as Metro Manila with trash, silt, and obstructions clogging waterways and worsening flood conditions.
The initiative, branded Oplan Kontra Baha, will deploy nearly 300 pieces of heavy equipment across seven major rivers and creeks, with machinery contributed by national agencies, local governments, and private partners, the same collaborative model used in Metro Manila.
He said the government is targeting nine months of nonstop clearing and declogging so that by the next rainy season, flooding will be significantly reduced.
“We started the project in Metro Manila that we will not only go to Metro Manila but we will go to all the urban centers and all of those areas that have suffered severe flooding in the last rains,” he said.
Beyond desiltation, the administration plans to build Sabo dams, small structures designed not to store water but to slow mountain runoff and reduce destructive flooding.
“This isn’t a one-off job,” President Marcos said.
He emphasized that the Cebu campaign is part of a broader national flood mitigation effort.
