Despite record-breaking heavy rainfall since last week, Metro Manila has managed to avoid severe flooding – thanks to a combination of mitigation efforts, including waterway dredging, operational pumping stations, expanded drainage systems, and the deployment of ‘manananggal’ units across most parts of the region.
Despite record-breaking heavy rainfall since last week, Metro Manila was able to ward off severe flooding with mitigation projects, which included dredging of waterways, operational pumping stations, expanded drainage pipes, and the deployment of ‘manananggal,’ in most parts of the region.
While it sounds like the mythical creature from Philippine folklore of a woman who splits from her torso to feast on fetuses, the Strike Force Manananggal of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) goes after trash blocking drainage and waterways, instead.
Funded by the Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD), the emergency employment program of the Department of Labor and Employment, the task force, which is named after the Filipino term of ‘to remove’ is deployed in flooded areas to remove trash.
‘So, they are actually wading into the water-working alongside DOLE TUPAD-to declog our drainage systems, which has significantly helped speed up the receding of floodwaters,’ MMDA chairman Romando S. Artes explained in Filipino in a press briefing in Malacañang last Monday.
He said DOLE provided them with 10,000 TUPAD beneficiaries to assist in their declogging operations.
‘This is a big help because preemptively, we were able to clean the drainages that were always blocked. And they also helped us even during the height of the rain when there were areas that we monitored with rising water levels,’ Artes said.
The MMDA chief said the initiative augments the Oplan Kontra Baha initiative of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to keep flood waters at bay after Tropical Storms ‘Maymay’ and ‘Luis,’ as well as the Southwest Monsoon, dumped rainfall equivalent for a month in just a week.
‘Even here in Metro Manila-specifically at the Science Garden in Quezon City-recorded rainfall reached 501.6 millimeters compared to the normal 568; that is almost 90 percent-meaning nearly a full month’s worth of rain poured down here in Quezon City, Metro Manila,’ Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) administrator Nathaniel T. Servando said in Filipino.
He said a similar trend was observed in Zambales, Pangasinan, and Baguio City.
Even with such torrential rain, Artes said many parts of the National Capital Region (NCR), which was previously submerged in volumes of floodwater only had gutter-deep floods, which promptly receded.
Palace Press Officer Claire Castro said this was in flood-prone areas like Navotas, Valenzuela, Manila, G. Araneta Venue, and E. Rodriguez Sr. Avenue.
DPWH Secretary DPWH Secretary Vivencio ‘Vince’ B. Dizon attributed the said achievement from their Oplan Kontra Baha initiatives, which includes dredging of waterways, expanding drainage pipes, and making sure pumping stations are operational.
But even with said development, he said they were instructed by President Ferdinand Marcos to continue improving flood control projects, particularly with the implementation of the flood management and flood mitigation project under the 2027 proposed budget.
‘So, we are pressing ahead; with the upcoming submission of the 2027 budget, we will include flood management and flood mitigation projects, and we are focusing on these various interventions,’ Dizon said.