Senatorial aspirant and Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez on Thursday called for an immediate national summit on floods to achieve a comprehensive and long-lasting solution to the seemingly unstoppable problem.
Romualdez noted that the government never runs out of press releases or statements on supposed billions of pesos worth of flood control projects in various areas nationwide, but as always, in just an hour or two of heavy rainfall, floods and its accompanying inconveniences like traffic jams, automatically follow.
“Everyone must make an effort to show malasakit [compassion] and see how we can all pitch in to address the flooding problem and find out why it hasn’t been solved despite all the money spent on flood control measures,” Romualdez said.
Romualdez said the summit should include representatives from the national government, local government units and the private sector, including informal settlers on waterways or flood-prone areas.
He said current flood-control programs and projects must be thoroughly reviewed, evaluated and if necessary overhauled with inputs from LGUs and the people.
“A financial and performance audit of all flood-control projects and the implementing agencies must also be conducted in the summit.
“We must ensure that the billions of pesos supposedly spent on these projects were not stolen or diverted and all technical specifications were met,” Romualdez said.
The senatorial aspirant added that concerned government departments had better come out with a detailed and truthful status of the flood problem. He emphasized that taxpayers’ money is being spent on flood control works so the people have the right to know the truth and everything about it.