MANILA, Philippines—Denying a report that he put to waste a P1-billion flood warning system, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Bayani Fernando on Sunday said the equipment was still “operational but obsolete.”

Fernando said the Effective Flood Control Operation System (Efcos) was actually the basis for an evacuation warning issued to Marikina City residents at around 1 a.m. on September 26, the day Tropical Storm “Ondoy” submerged Metro Manila and nearby provinces in deep floodwaters.

He added that another warning was issued at 3 a.m. on the same day.

“As early as 1 a.m., there was a warning for Marikina residents to evacuate. The city was not yet flooded at the time,” he told listeners of “MMDA sa GMA,” the agency’s weekly program on radio station dzBB.

According to a report which appeared in Newsbreak, the flood warning system could have been used to minimize the loss of lives and damage to property.

Quoting sources, the report said Fernando let the equipment deteriorate because the cost of maintaining it outweighed its usefulness.

Financed by Japan, the 1992 project, Newsbreak said, gathered data from water gauges and water level stations which would provide authorities with “advance information on any overflowing of riverbanks along the stretch of the Pasig River, thus alerting them for potential flooding.”

It added that Efcos stopped operating in May 2008 due to budget problems.

Fernando, however, said the outdated system had depreciated over time.

“It’s working but if it bogs down, there are no more replacement parts. If it cost P1.1 billion before, it’s probably worth less than P100 million now,” he said.

He stressed that at this time, he would rather focus on rehabilitation efforts in affected areas before concentrating on the “technical aspects” of the MMDA’s flood control program.

Earlier, Fernando said the MMDA would soon move its clearing team from Marikina to Pasig and Taguig to help in cleanup operations.

For the past two weeks, the agency has been concentrating its manpower in Marikina City which was one of the areas hit hardest by Ondoy.

“Rather than discussing these technical things, what’s important is to help the residents live normally again,” Fernando said.

Baltazar Melgar, head of the MMDA’s flood control management services, said the problem of flooding was more than just an equipment issue.

“Illegal settlers along the Manggahan floodway are going back to the area [after the floodwaters receded] because the local government can’t relocate them elsewhere. So we can’t really blame them if they’re building their shanties again because where will they go?” he said in Filipino.