MANILA, Philippines—Amid finger-pointing, a Senate committee Wednesday agreed to help craft a protocol in releasing excess water from dams following the incessant rain and devastating flooding that last week submerged 38 towns and cities in Pangasinan province.

The consensus was reached during a public hearing in which angry local executives faced off with officials of the San Roque Dam and its owner, National Power Corp. (Napocor), who maintained warnings were issued before water was released Oct. 6.

Pangasinan Gov. Amado Espino accused dam officials of lying for claiming that there was sufficient advisory to affected areas prior to the opening of all the San Roque Dam’s six spillway gates.

“It is given through fax … or we have patrol cars to deliver personally the message. That time, the message was (sent through) fax,” said Napocor chief hydrologist Russel Rigor, who added that the warning was issued as early as 4 p.m. on Oct. 6, eight hours before the water release.

Espino, fuming, asked if Rigor knew the fax number of all municipal and provincial halls in Pangasinan.

“Our guests from Napocor said they sent it via fax, isn’t it? Do you have a fax number of Lingayen (Disaster Coordinating Council)? Do you have the fax number of Alcala, Villasis—the mayors are here now?” Espino asked.

Rigor claimed that Napocor had set up 17 fixed warning stations around San Roque Dam, which broadcast “warning messages” before spillway gates are opened.

Espino said he was with mayors of towns affected by Pepeng at the time distributing relief goods, but there was no warning issued.

‘Stop lying’

The governor then asked Rigor to “stop lying here and pinning the blame on someone else. You don’t have any warning system there … Don’t provoke us to anger, our constituents are suffering already.

“We are here to resolve what’s happening in Pangasinan peacefully. I am the governor there. I was out in the field when it happened. I saw everything. Now, you will tell us that, I will be angry at you,” Espina taunted Rigor.

Sen. Loren Legarda, chair of the committee on climate change, will summon all dam operators to another hearing on Friday to write the procedures prompted by back-to-back storms that hit Luzon over the past three weeks, triggered massive flooding and claimed 712 lives.

“We need to have a system or what we call a protocol in releasing water from the dams. We can’t rely on (dam officials’) ingenuity but on a clear scientific way,” said Legarda following a three-hour hearing.

Legarda said the mechanism was needed to prevent a repeat of the destruction and deaths caused by the sudden rise of floodwaters at the height of the onslaught of Tropical Storm “Pepeng” (international codename: Parma) just a week after Tropical Storm “Ondoy” (Ketsana) mauled Metro Manila.

“We will craft this so that all dam operators will agree on a protocol, so that they will not have to wait for a critical water level,” she later told reporters.

Legarda said Napocor should have closely coordinated with the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) as to the volume of the expected rainfall from Pepeng so that the release of the water could have been staggered even in the absence of functioning Doppler radars.

Lack of common sense

The senator said that flooding in Pangasinan and parts of Nueva Ecija and Tarlac could have been averted had Napocor officials used “common sense” in calibrating the opening of the spillways.

She grilled Rigor on why Napocor had only ordered the release of water at midnight of Oct. 6 when water was already at 286.25 meters above sea level (masl) at the San Roque Dam, which was already very close to the dam’s critical level of 290 meters.

Legarda said that if Napocor had considered the 280-290 meter levels to be already critical, “then why was it that the company did not release water early on when water started breaching the 280 masl level.”

She said experts agreed that at the 280 masl, water could have been released at 500 cubic meters per second (cms).

The late decision to release water caused a tenfold increase in the volume of water released at 5,000 cms, an onslaught that overwhelmed the Agno River system, she said.

Where’s the advisory?

The San Roque Dam captures water released by Ambuklao and Binga hydroelectric dams in the upstream Agno River in Benguet province.

Legarda asked who would take responsibility for the decision to release water from San Roque Dam.

Dam engineer Raymund Mariano pointed to Alex Palada, Napocor’s manager of the flood forecasting and warning system division, who was not present.

Other causes

Espino agreed with Legarda that besides the abrupt release of water from dams, the “denudation of our forests is really one of the culprits here.”

Pangasinan Rep. Mark Cojuangco said that the lack of drainage system and illegal settlements beside waterways were also to blame for the excessive flooding.

“This could have been averted if San Roque released water at the right time and with the right volume of water,” the congressman said, explaining that the Agno River floodway had a capacity of 4,000 cms.

About 3,000 cms should come from tributaries of Agno, while the remaining 1,000 cms is the water “allowance given” to San Roque Dam. He was referring to excess water that can be released to Agno River.

Agno River overloaded

At the height of Pepeng, the dam had released 5,700 cms, so Cojuangco concluded that the river was “grossly overloaded.”

“If you don’t have Doppler radar, then dam operators should have erred on the side of more conservatism by early release of water in small quantities … even before the typhoon came,” he said.

He also said dikes should be reinforced to prevent breaching.

Gov’t’s priority

Rep. Conrado Estrella III then asked about the government’s priority—to generate power or save lives and properties.

“Why did San Roque fill up the dams (to the brim)? Who will be responsible to us? Is there a feasibility study when the dam was made in the first place? Government is investing hundreds of millions even billions to infrastructures like schools, road, bridges, electricity,” Estrella said.

He asked if there was a government entity overseeing the protocols of operation and management of these privatized dams, and studies of their structural integrity.

Repair of dikes urged

“Do we have a proper protocol? Do they know how many (spillway) gates can be opened before Agno River swells, engulfing the whole province?” Estrella said.

“It’s just October, so we expect more typhoons to come. If we will not release money to repair these dikes, no amount of English or Tagalog we will say here (will resolve this). We will still be flooded. So I want to know what we will do,” said Estrella.

Causes and costs

Also Wednesday, 15 senators expressed support for Senate Bill No. 3480 seeking the creation of a commission to investigate the “causes and costs” of calamities such as those wrought by Ondoy and Pepeng.

The proposed commission will conduct “a comprehensive fact-finding investigation of the causes, circumstances, costs and actions to be taken in light of the disasters and calamities due to the storms,” said the bill’s principal author Sen. Francis Pangilinan.