The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) said Tuesday it would revisit and consider revising the protocols on opening the dams and releasing water to prevent massive flooding from happening again.
“Actually yesterday, nag-meeting na kami dito sa Cauayan to revisit po yung protocol namin,” NIA Dam and Reservoir Division Manager Eduardo Ramos said in an interview over ABS-CBN News Channel.
(Yesterday, we had a meeting here in Cauayan to revisit our protocols.)
“Ang sabi ko, mag-convene ang NIA management at pag-usapan ito kung paano i-revise para ma-solve natin yung problema sa flooding sa downstream,” he added.
(The NIA management should convene and talk about how to revise this to solve flooding downstream.)
Meanwhile, Cagayan provincial government will study if it continues with filing charges against the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) over Magat Dam’s release water, which allegedly caused the massive flooding in the province.
NIA eyes revising dam opening protocols
In a television interview, Governor Manuel Mamba said there is really an uproar from the affected residents to go after NIA administrators.
“We will have to study this with our legal team just to effect change and for them to come up with… ang sinasabi ko kasi puwedeng hindi nila sabayan eh ‘yung paglaki ng Cagayan River. Hindi naman maliit ‘yung nare-release,” Mamba told ANC.
“Sinasabi ko nga po there should be a medium-term and long-term plans to mitigate or even prevent these things to happen and worsen. Our problem on flooding is worsening every year. Kung nasabayan lang kami ng malakas na bagyo at nagkaroon ng uprooted trees that came down with water, pati ‘yung Buntun Bridge nadali na,” he added.
The House of Representatives said it would investigate the severe Cagayan flooding that submerged Cagayan and Isabel during and after the onslaught of Typhoon Ulysses (international name Vamco).
Speaker Lord Allan Velasco, House Majority Leader Martin Romualdez, and Minority Leader Joseph Stephen Paduano filed House Resolution 1348, ordering the concerned committees to investigate the flooding immediately.
“As the death toll continues to rise and the extent of damage is slowly being revealed, there is an urgent need to examine the actions that were taken during, before, and after the onslaught of Typhoon Ulysses,” Velasco said.