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Philippines
Thursday, March 28, 2024

Tacloban Seawall Plan Criticized

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TACLOBAN CITY—The government is pushing to build a P48-billion, 27.3-kilometer seawall to protect this city from storm surges like the deadly ones brought by Super Typhoon “Yolanda” two years ago, but local officials and lawmakers said there were more urgent priorities that needed funding.

“I am not against the seawall or tidal embankment project. Nor do I endorse it,” said Mayor Alfred Romualdez at a news conference at Patio Victoria. “We have come to call it the Great Wall of Tacloban.”

The mayor said it was the city’s priority to provide its people with potable water.

“The immediate need now is to move the people into safer ground. However, the first major problem in the relocation sites is water,” Romualdez said.

“If you ask me which is more important, water or a wall? I would say definitely, it’s water,” he said.

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 Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez agreed, and said the Department of Public Works and Highways should complete its study before proceeding with the stretch steel and concrete seawall that will be four meters thick and four meters high.

“The timing and priority could be the issue. Permanent housing facilities with adequate water and electricity are the more immediate needs,” the congressman said.

 Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said the national government fell far short of its target to build 250,000 permanent homes for Yolanda survivors, finishing only 17,000 two years after the storm that claimed more than 6,000 lives.

Papal marker. Congresman Martin Romualdez arranges an image of Sto. Nino during the unveiling of the commemorative papal mass marker at the  Tacloban City’s Daniel Z. Romualdez  Airport. The event also marks the second anniversary of Typhoon Yolanda’s onslaught  which ravaged Tacloban, Leyte, Samar and other parts of Visayas.  SONNY ESPIRITU

The mayor said it would take only about P4 billion to put up a water facility in the north of the city.

Residents now depend on water rations provided by the city government or they get their water from deep wells.

Mayor Romualdez said he found it ironic that the government was pushing for relocating the residents from the 40-meter “no build zone” while assuring them that they would be protected by the seawall.

“I foresee conflict that may arise in the future because of this sea wall, as families living in the coastal areas may refuse to transfer to relocation sites, thinking that they are now protected by the sea wall,” the mayor said.

“Why do we have to spend billions of pesos for the northern barangays if there was a plan all along to construct a seawall?” he added.

Of the 27.3 kilometers under the project, 20.1 kms will be in Tacloban, 4.1 kms will cover Palo and 3.1 kms will be in Tanauan. Officials in Palo and Tanauan have already endorsed the project.

 The tidal embankment would be the first of its kind in the entire country with the Japan International Cooperation Agency providing the technical assistance.

The allocation would be sourced from the DPWH’s annual general budget for the next six years, said DPWH Regional Director Rolando Asis.

The project is expected to start in the last quarter of this year and be completed by 2020.

Mayor Romualdez said there was insufficient data to show the seawall could protect the coastlines from storm surges, such as the ones measuring four to five meters during Yolanda.

While the other mayors were supporting the seawall project, Romualdez said he could not make an intelligent decision until the DPWH can draw support from other national government agencies.

“All stakeholders must be consulted. This early, the fisherfolk already fear they would be deprived of access to the sea, and thus have to find alternative livelihood,” he said.

The mayor added that he needed assurances from the national government that enough funds would be allocated to the project before it could get his city’s approval.

“Remember, I am a Romualdez and the President is an Aquino,” the mayor said, using the same words that former Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II used in the immediate aftermath of Yolanda when he wanted him to turn over authority to the national government. 

“Unless they give me a letter stating in black and white that the seawall project has the full backing of the President, then it would not be easy for me to support it,” Romualdez said.

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