Thirty locations across Metro Manila have been tapped as possible sites for underground cisterns designed to hold floodwater, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. announced, framing the project as a key addition to the capital’s flood-management system.
Detailed engineering work for the proposed sites should wrap up before the month ends, the President said during a situation briefing at the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Command Center in Pasig City. Sites such as Rajah Sulayman, Rizal Memorial, Camp Aguinaldo, and the University of Santo Tomas are among those being eyed, with underground structures to be built and the surface areas restored once work concludes.
Before any digging starts, the government must first secure clearance from the groups overseeing each property, Marcos said, noting that talks are already underway.
“We are already, at present time, conferring and speaking to the areas, kung sinuman ang namamahala doon sa mga area na ‘yun na pumayag sila para hukayin nga ‘yung kanilang lugar,” he said.
Rather than letting collected water drain straight into the sea, the President has ordered officials to figure out how it might be reused, pointing to possible household, industrial, or irrigation applications. Discarding such large quantities of usable freshwater, he said, would be wasteful.
“Gagawa tayo ng sistema para kung anuman ‘yung nakolekta na tubig ay magamit din,” he said.
The cistern plan sits within a wider campaign that also covers dredging, drainage system upgrades, seawall reinforcement, and the running of both fixed pumping stations and mobile pumping units.
On the toll of the recent monsoon, Marcos reported 27 deaths and 17 injuries, with 4,700 barangays and 1.7 million families affected. Even so, he pointed to visible gains: places that once drowned under two storeys of water were now seeing only knee-deep flooding, and some spots avoided flooding altogether.
“Kung dati maghihintay ang tao ng dalawa, tatlong araw bago mawala ‘yung baha, ngayon wala pang isang araw ay wala na,” he said, adding that water was draining more quickly than before.
All 73 pumping stations are operational, the President said, supported by 11 mobile pumping units as crews press on with dredging and floodwater removal.
Marcos also flagged the intensity of the rainfall as a mounting concern, citing 201.7 millimeters that fell over just five hours — roughly 44 percent of what Typhoon Ondoy dumped across a full 24 hours.
“‘Yan ang ating hinaharap ngayon dahil nga sa climate change,” he said. “Now this is a little bit — becoming a little bit like the new normal.”
He credited the flood-control work of recent months for softening the latest flooding’s blow, and said the government would keep pursuing solutions on short-, medium-, and long-term horizons.
