Category: Philippines Daily Inquirer

The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) will build three rainwater impounding facilities (RIFs) in Manila to help mitigate flooding in the capital.

MMDA Chair Atty. Don Artes and Manila Mayor Francisco ‘Isko Moreno’ Domagoso signed a memorandum of agreement for the implementation of nature-based solutions in the city.

The agreement covers the construction of RIFs at the ASEAN Garden along the CCP Complex, Remedios Circle, and Rajah Sulayman Park.

The proposed sites were identified following technical studies by Haskoning that assessed their feasibility as locations for RIFs, particularly in areas prone to recurring flooding.

The facilities will temporarily store rainwater and serve as catch basins during heavy rainfall.

The RIF at Remedios Circle will have an estimated storage capacity of 10,000 cubic meters and will serve a catchment area of around 94 hectares.

The facility at Rajah Sulayman Park will have an estimated storage capacity of 8,000 cubic meters and will also serve a catchment area of around 94 hectares.

Meanwhile, the Vito Cruz ASEAN Garden facility will serve a catchment area of about 60 hectares and will have a proposed storage capacity of around 9,600 cubic meters.

The projects are part of a P4-billion fund approved for rainwater catchment facilities.

The construction of the RIFs forms part of an initiative to develop Metro Manila into a ‘sponge city,’ where rainwater is stored and managed as a resource.

The collected rainwater may also be used for other purposes as part of efforts to improve water resource management and conservation.

Artes said the MMDA aims to complete the construction of the three facilities before the start of the rainy season next year, with a target completion date of June 30, 2027.

‘The marching order to us from our President Bongbong Marcos is to finish this before the rainy season starts next year. So internally, we have set a target by June 30,’ Artes said.

Artes said the three facilities are only part of a larger project to address flooding in Manila, particularly in the areas of Taft, Remedios, and Padre Faura.

Domagoso thanked the national government, through the MMDA, for responding to the city’s requests for the projects, with funding to come from the agency.

‘So, on behalf of the people of Manila, I would like to thank the National Government, Office of the President through MMDA Chair Artes and MMDA family,’ he said.

‘Solutions, interventions, with the recurring problems with regard to flooding of Metro Manila, particularly the south portion of Manila, are now going to be implemented under the leadership of Chairman Artes,’ Domagoso added.

The project engineer in the allegedly substandard road dike project in Oriental Mindoro on Tuesday told the Sandiganbayan Sixth Division that he was not aware that contractor Sunwest was conducting construction work at night.

Felisardo Casuno, who used to be with the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Region IV-B office, made this known during the continuation of his testimony to defend himself before the court where he faces a charge of malversation through falsification of public documents, with former Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Zaldy Co as co-accused.

Sunwest, which was co-founded by Co, undertook this project, which DPWH found to have alleged deficiencies.

The project in Naujan town was supposed to have 12-meter-long steel sheet piles (SSPs), but DPWH chief Vince Dizon said after an inspection that the SSPs were only three meters long.

Associate Justice Kevin Vivero asked if Sunwest ‘unilaterally decided’ to just use three-meter SSPs for the project.

In response, Casuno said that, as the contractor, Sunwest has control of the equipment and personnel.

‘Oftentimes, they are piling it at night,’ Casuno further said in response to the clarificatory question.

However, he clarified that he only learned of it during the testimony of one of the witnesses in this case.

During his testimony in January, prosecution witness village chairman Nestor Alegria Asi, said he personally observed Sunwest laborers driving steel sheet piles at the construction site, often starting at around 7 p.m. Asi also testified that acetylene torches were used to cut the SSPs.

Casuno said he has not received any report that such activities were being conducted at night.

Meanwhile, he maintained that he personally saw four 12-meter SSPs being piled on the ground.

Furthermore, he submitted a picture of an SSP stockpile as evidence in court.

He told the court that the stockpiled SSPs are compliant with the 12-meter requirement, which he said he measured himself.

Casuno’s testimony began on Oct. 1.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said it is planning to issue a directive urging golf courses in Metro Manila to use recycled water, among other conservation measures, to help mitigate the effects of El Niño.

Environment Secretary Juan Miguel Cuna made the statement during a Palace press briefing on Monday, after he was asked if the agency plans to renew a 2024 directive for golf courses to use recycled water when irrigating their fairways, greens, tees, rough, grass patches, and plants.

‘Actually, it’s not just them. The directive will be repeated, but we will also give a directive on other measures that can be done by the public. Isn’t there a saying that ‘it is better to lose electricity than water?” Cuna said in Filipino.

‘We cannot be ‘business as usual.’ Every individual, all citizens, need to do their part by conserving water. The unnecessary use [of water], such as car washing, soaking of driveways and swimming pools, is unnecessary at this time,’ he added.

According to Cuna, other water conservation measures that the public can undertake include rainwater harvesting, especially with the constant storms being experienced by the country.

He also encouraged the public to reuse ‘grey water,’ which is gently used water generated from household activities such as laundry, showering, and cooking, to water plants.

Cuna said the DENR, through the Water Resource Management Office, will work with local government units (LGUs) to implement water conservation measures.

He also assured that the water level of Angat Dam, which supplies 90 percent of the water in the National Capital Region, remains ‘steady’ at 208 meters.

Should a water shortage occur, Cuna said the DENR is already working with the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System and other water concessionaires to ensure that mobile and stationary water tankers will be placed in strategic areas.

Moreover, he urged residents to report any potential ‘leakages,’ saying that a lot of water is wasted because of them.

In the same briefing, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) also warned that all provinces in the country are expected to experience drought or very dry conditions by March 2027 due to the increasing effects of El Niño.

‘[T]he effects are being felt, but it can get worse next year based on the amount of rain that will happen. And I’d like to reiterate again, how we will be affected by it is dependent on how much preparation we have and the conservation of water that we will do,’ DOST Secretary Renato Solidum said.

A brass bell, believed to be over a century old, has been recovered after police traced it to a scrap-metal buyer in Bohol who paid P17,000 for it.

The bell, reportedly made in 1914, was stolen from Saint Peter the Apostle Parish Church (popularly known as Loboc Church) in Loboc town, and discovered missing by church personnel at 7:50 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 5.

Police were alerted about 10 minutes later and immediately reviewed CCTV footage from the area.

The footage reportedly showed two people taking the bell and boarding a tricycle, giving investigators a lead that helped them identify the alleged perpetrators.

Police coordinated with the Sagbayan Municipal Police Station and arrested a 25-year-old male scrap-metal buyer from Purok 6, Barangay Santa Cruz, Sagbayan, at around 1:50 a.m. Tuesday.

The bell had already been sold to a scrap-metal buyer in Sagbayan for P17,000, according to the police report.

A follow-up operation led police to Purok 2, Barangay Libertad, Tubigon, also in Bohol, where they recovered the stolen bell.

According to Fr. Agerio Paña, parish priest, the suspects had reportedly passed by their area several times before the theft.

Police said the suspects were expected to face charges on Tuesday.

The tricycle allegedly used in the theft was also placed in the temporary custody of the Sagbayan police for proper disposition.

The arrested suspects were brought to the Loboc Municipal Police Station for documentation and the filing of appropriate charges.

Authorities recovered the bell less than 24 hours after it was reported missing, preserving an artifact believed to be part of the parish’s historical heritage.

A formidable pillar of the Philippine economy has passed,’ I wrote in my chat groups as news circulated last Friday that Cesar Enrique Aguinaldo Virata, the only Prime Minister of the Philippines, had died at the age of 95. While his death wasn’t really a shock given his advanced age and challenged physical health, it was surprising and saddening news to me just the same, especially because just over three weeks ago, we were seated beside each other in a meeting he actively participated in.

For two decades, Virata had chaired the Advisory Committee (AdCom) of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) in the Philippines since its 2006 inception. It was in that capacity that I had the privilege of direct and regular association with him over the last 15 years since I became part of that body in 2011. Late last year, he asked to step down from that role and nominated me to take his place, but pledged to continue joining the AdCom meetings. That was what brought us seated side by side again three weeks ago, and none of us in that meeting expected that it would be his last.

It was 34 years ago that I first met him face to face, at my office soon after then President Fidel V. Ramos placed me at the helm of the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda). Having long been a towering figure in the Philippine economic landscape, most prominently as President Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s concurrent Finance Minister and Prime Minister, he was an eminent and honored guest to receive in my own office then. He came for one reason: he argued for the formulation of a comprehensive, coherent, and integrated long-term strategic infrastructure development plan-a binding master plan and blueprint that would hopefully bind the present and future presidents.

He told me how unhappy he was about how the government’s infrastructure projects did not seem to follow any coherent plan or framework, especially with politicians coming up with arbitrary projects that mostly favor their congressional districts (yes, it was a problem then as it remains a problem now, only worse!). The good PM had been part of a government known to have invested massively in infrastructure of various kinds (including frivolous pet projects of a First Lady known then to have an ‘edifice complex’-never mind how all of it was unsustainably financed; that’s another story in itself). To his credit, Virata was known to have strongly resisted many of the former first lady’s ill-advised pursuits, mostly unsuccessfully. He was also critical of the coconut and sugar monopolies held by Marcos cronies. Because he kept his principles intact even as the dictator’s chief economic technocrat, he managed to maintain the esteem and respect of the business community and informed members of the general public.

I agreed with him on infrastructure planning, of course. Our work in public investment programming at Neda then was geared in the direction that Virata espoused, of ensuring coherence, integration, strategic thinking and continuity to be embodied in the country’s infrastructure program nationwide. The Infrastructure Committee of the Neda Board, chaired by Neda and composed of the government’s various infrastructure agencies, planned for what we called a ‘seamless multi-modal transport infrastructure system.’ We described our aspiration simply: we wanted a system wherein anyone can readily and smoothly move across land, air and water modes of transport, so an arriving passenger at the airport (or maritime port) can choose rail or alternative forms of road transport (bus, taxi, jeepney, or private car) to get to his/her next destination, including possibly to another air, land, or water terminal for further onward travel. Since back then, it had never made sense that the Manila Light Rail Transit line’s train depot was right beside the Manila Domestic Airport, yet the trains never connected to the air terminal. The painful reason, privately admitted to us by past transport officials, was that the taxi industry lobbied against such a link.

That elusive air-rail link is finally going to happen (but don’t hold your breath just yet-it’s not until 2031) through the Metro Manila Subway project, thanks to Jica-and Virata himself presided over AdCom meetings where we lengthily discussed it. In countless such meetings over the years, he was in his element in discussions on strategic infrastructure, which the Japanese government, through Jica, has prominently and consistently helped our country finance. We in the committee reveled in his stories of bygone years when he presided over an infrastructure program that put us ahead of our neighbors. Too bad he could not live to see the day that air-rail link finally happens; as it stands, he would have needed to live to 100 to see it in actual service.

God bless Prime Minister Virata. We pray that our infrastructure dreams do not die with him.

Former House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco and his wife, Rowena, failed to appear on Monday before the National Bureau of Investigation to respond to dismissed police officer Rodulfo Gracioso Jr.’s allegations that the former congressman had ordered him to deliver over P3 billion in cash to Vice President Sara Duterte and her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte.

The Velascos were represented only by their three counsels who received a copy of Gracioso’s affidavit. One of the lawyers, Rowell Ilagan, reiterated Velasco’s denial of his former security man’s allegations although he confirmed that the two know each other.

Ilagan also refused to answer media queries about the couple’s whereabouts, saying only that they did not escape. ‘It’s wrong to think that [they escaped]. As private citizens, we can freely travel.

That is one of our constitutional rights as individuals,’ Ilagan said. He added that the couple would reply to the allegations ‘at the proper forum and at the proper time.’

The NBI earlier confirmed that Velasco left for Nagoya, Japan in August while his wife flew to Hong Kong in September. Both have yet to return as of last week.

Vice President Duterte was also supposed to appear before the NBI but her camp requested a new date. She earlier denied Gracioso’s accusation, saying she does not know him.

Aguilar town in western Pangasinan has imposed a temporary ban on the entry into and exit from the town of live swine, pork, and pork by-products to control the spread of African Swine Fever (ASF).

The ban is contained in Executive Order 76-2026 issued on Monday.

Aguilar is the second town in Pangasinan that restricted the entry and exit of live swine and products within its territory.

Executive Order No. 156 was issued in the central Pangasinan town of Bayambang on October 1, following ‘isolated’ ASF cases in six of its barangays.

The other communities where ASF has been reported are Alaminos City and the towns of Malasiqui and Mapandan, according to the Bureau of Animal Industry.

The Philippine National Police (PNP) said vlogger or businessman Norman Mangusin, also known as ‘Francis Leo Marcos,’ was arrested on Monday afternoon over three counts of cyberlibel.

He remains in the custody of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), with bail set at P30,000 for each count.

‘So, as of now, he’s under the custody of the DSOU (Detection and Special Operations Unit) of the CIDG, and he was not yet able to post bail,’ said PNP public information office chief Col. Allen Rae Co in a briefing at Camp Crame on Tuesday.

‘He peacefully submitted to the police authorities,’ said Co, adding that operatives traced him at a hotel in Parañaque City.

The arrest warrant was in relation to Article 353 of the Revised Penal Code, in relation to Section 4(c)(4) of Republic Act No. 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act.

The issuing court is the National Capital Judicial Region, Regional Trial Court Branch 294 in Parañaque City.

In March, National Police Commission (Napolcom) Commissioner Rafael Calinisan said he filed complaints against Mangusin before the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office for unjust vexation and cyberlibel after the vlogger allegedly cursed at him during a livestream.

Prior to that, Mangusin was arrested by the CIDG over 12 counts of unjust vexation filed by fellow vlogger.

Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) General Manager Nicolas Torre III has extended his leave for another week and is now expected to return to the agency on Oct. 16, MMDA Chair Atty. Don Artes said Tuesday.

Torre was initially expected to return on Oct. 8 but extended his leave to attend to family matters following the death of his mother-in-law, Artes said during a media briefing.

Despite being on leave since Sept. 8, Torre continue to assist the agency and provide support behind the scenes, Artes added.

‘I can say that even though he is on leave, GM Torre is still working and helping us from behind the scenes,’ Artes said.

Torre initially went on a monthlong leave after his vehicle was caught using the EDSA Busway, which is reserved for buses, on-duty emergency vehicles, and vehicles of the country’s top five officials. He later admitted that the vehicle belonged to him and apologized for using the exclusive lane.

The controversy also involved the use of a license plate issued to another vehicle, as well as MMDA markings and a blinker on Torre’s armored sport utility vehicle. The Land Transportation Office subsequently investigated the vehicle and revoked the license of its driver.

Artes previously said he did not suspend Torre because he lacked ‘disciplinary authority’ over the MMDA general manager, who was appointed by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Artes also said he continued to consider Torre an asset to the agency despite the controversy.

Lawyer Mark Vinluan, counsel for Vice President Sara Duterte, apologized to the senator-judges Tuesday for remarks that appeared to intimidate the witness or members of the media during his cross-examination of an Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) official.

Vinluan had cited penalties under the Anti-Money Laundering Act while questioning AMLC Secretariat Executive Director Ronel Buenaventura about financial confidentiality.

Senator-judges Raffy Tulfo, Risa Hontiveros, Kiko Pangilinan and Vicente ‘Tito’ Sotto III later called out Vinluan over what they viewed as potentially intimidating remarks directed at the witness or the media.

‘When we read portions of the law during our cross-examination, it is never our intention to cause intimidation, especially to the members of this honorable impeachment court,’ Vinluan told the court.

‘If in any way a different message was indirectly conveyed, I personally apologize, and commit to be more circumspect moving forward,’ he added.

Vinluan explained that his questions were intended to test Buenaventura’s credibility.

‘In all humility, our intention in cross-examination is to test the credibility of the witness, among others, and part of testing that credibility is to confront him not just with documents but with salient provisions of the law so we could demonstrate whether or not his application of the law is correct,’ he said.

The apology later drew a lighter moment in the Senate impeachment court after Tulfo said Senator-judge Lito Lapid appeared to be ‘scared’ by Vinluan’s remarks.

Vinluan said he had no intention of intimidating anyone, ‘especially Senator-judge Lapid,’ whom he described as ‘very gracious’ to the defense team.

‘Maraming salamat po sa maja blanca,’ Vinluan added, drawing smiles from Lapid and the other senator-judges.