MANILA, Philippines ? Pushed by the great flood brought about by Tropical Storm ?Ondoy? (international codename: Ketsana), President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo Thursday gave the go-signal for an urban development project that would rid Metro Manila of tens of thousands of informal settlers and modify its landscape.

At the Legislative and Executive Development Advisory Council (Ledac) meeting in Malacañang, Sen. Edgardo Angara broached the idea of changing the ?topography and geography? of parts of Metro Manila in the wake of Ondoy?s devastation, according to Press Secretary Cerge Remonde.

Remonde said Ms Arroyo was amenable to the proposal and wanted the project to take off from the 1977 Metro Manila Transport, Land Use and Development Project.

He lamented that the project received what he called a ?Mona Lisa treatment? from previous administrations that allowed it to ?just lay there and die.?

?Why should we start from scratch when there is already something?? Remonde said at a media briefing after the Ledac meeting. ?The idea here is to use the master plan as a starting point.?

Ms Arroyo apparently was so interested in the study that she asked architect Felino Palafox Jr., one of its proponents, to present it at a Cabinet meeting.

?The President is very serious in considering it,? Remonde said. ?The President will have the political will until the end of her term.?

He said Ms Arroyo had ?nothing to lose? in implementing drastic changes in Metro Manila?s urban setup since she was serving the last few months of her term.

Restrict development

In the study, funded by the World Bank, the proponents recommended: ?Development should be restricted by the application of controls in three major areas?in the Marikina Valley, the western shores of Laguna de Bay, and the Manila Bay coastal area to the north of Manila.?

At the Ledac meeting, leaders from the Senate and the House of Representatives committed to have the Climate Change Act of 2009 ready for Ms Arroyo?s signature by Oct. 30.

Body to replace NDCC

Lawmakers also promised to pass immediately the bill institutionalizing the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management and Recovery Framework. The measure will create a new policy-making body to replace the National Disaster Coordinating Council.

Remonde said Ledac members were briefed by the Department of Science and Technology on climate change and were made to realize that ?we really need to accept the anomalous weather condition.?

Part of the planned Metro Manila development project is the relocation of informal settlers living near rivers and creeks.

Draft order

Remonde said Ms Arroyo received a draft of an executive order on the relocation from Mindoro Rep. Rodolfo Valencia, chair of the House committee on housing and urban development.

The press secretary said the order, which should be ready in two weeks, would cover issues such as penalizing local executives for allowing residents in danger-prone areas such as river banks.

?When you take your oath, you swear to enforce the law,? he said. ?Building houses (in restricted areas) is a violation of the law. If it is not enforced by local government officials, then they are violating the law.?

Remonde said there would also be an executive order creating a ?river basin council in areas where there are dams for better coordination among stakeholders in the area.?

Review flooding measures

At a forum at the University of the Philippines on Tuesday, a hydraulics engineer said government and private developers should review existing flood protection measures in light of severe floods from Ondoy and Tropical Storm ?Pepeng.?

?The floods from Ondoy are very rare because of the extreme amount of rainfall, and to avoid that kind of flooding again, this must be addressed by both structural and nonstructural approaches,? Guillermo Tabios said.

He called for a comprehensive, up-to-date flood forecasting and rainfall prediction so that both disaster management officials and residents would have ample time to prepare.

Long-term study on land use

In particular, Tabios said land developers and government agencies must conduct long-term studies on land use to avoid the kind of flooding that submerged Provident Villages in Marikina City.

?This is so that residential villages should not be located along the flood plain where water endangers them, like in Provident Villages. Hazard maps showing flood-prone areas must be updated and given to the local governments,? he said.

Tabios and other engineers spoke at the Disaster Mitigation, Adaptation and Preparedness Strategies Forum on Flood Risk Management at the UP College of Engineering.

Peak flood discharge

Tabios conducted a study of the flooding in Marikina during Ondoy and found that at a portion of the Marikina River in Sto. Niño, the peak flood discharge was 5,770 cubic meters per second.

He pointed out that normally, a peak flood discharge of 3,310 cubic meters per second happened every 100 years.

?As far as flood statistics are concerned, the floods in Marikina City during Ondoy were major, major flood because it exceeded the 100-year return period,? said Tabios, the head of the National Hydraulics Research Center.

In flood-prone areas near the Marikina River such as the SM Mall and Provident Villages, the height of the floodwaters on Sept. 26 reached five to six meters.

He said obstructions along river systems and on flood plains resulted in the inundation of areas previously not flood-prone.

Clogged drainage

Engineer Sophia Santiago of the Department of Public Works and Highways noted that aside from the excessive rainfall during Ondoy, infrastructure concerns like clogged drainage contributed to the flooding.

Santiago pointed out that 70 percent of the drainage system constructed in 1975 was already silted and clogged up 70 percent because of indiscriminate throwing of garbage.

She also criticized how waterways in some subdivisions were filled up and replaced with inadequate pipes which cannot properly handle water flow.

Tabios suggested the retrofitting of flood control infrastructure such as river works, dikes, detention ponds and pumping stations.

To define climate change

He said the heavy rains caused by Ondoy and Pepeng were attributed to climate change.

?There must be a national effort to define climate change, which would include deciding what approaches we can do so that people can appreciate this more. There are many scenarios but we need to select what is appropriate to the Philippines,? Tabios said.