MANILA, Philippines ? The state-run National Power Corp. (Napocor) on Friday promised to revise its protocol for the release of water from the San Roque Dam in Pangasinan by Nov. 30 to prevent a repeat of the massive flooding in the province last week.

The commitment was made by Napocor officials after admitting at the resumption of the inquiry of the Senate committee on climate change that the protocol on the dam situated in San Manuel, Pangasinan, needed ?updating.?

Committee chair Sen. Loren Legarda said Napocor officials should revise the dam?s early warning system so that residents would be warned early on of any release of water from the dam.

?We should ensure that the early warning systems are exhausted and implemented in every way possible ? Use either text [messages] or megaphones until the warning reaches the people,? Legarda said.

At the start of the hearing, Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes told the senators that he had directed Napocor president Froilan Tampinco to submit by Monday a report on how the agency had handled the release of water from the San Roque Dam.

Reyes said he wanted Tampinco to find out whether Napocor had followed the protocol and if officials and engineers could be held criminally and administratively liable in ordering the release of water at the height of Typhoon ?Pepeng.?

Huge volume of rainfall

Tampinco, who finally showed up at the inquiry, said a protocol was followed in the release of water at midnight of Oct. 6, but pointed out that the huge volume of rainfall ?had not been experienced in the country for a long, long while.?

?The last incident of a similar nature was in 1920 and was not as grave. It clearly shows that the protocols we follow certainly need updating,? Tampinco said.

According to the protocol, the San Roque Dam will open its gates when the water reaches the critical point of 280 to 290 meters above sea level (masl).

Dam operators will also make sure that the water to be released will amount to 500 cubic meters per second (cms).

At the hearing, Legarda heard explanations from operators of other dams?the Angat and Ipo Dams in Bulacan, Pantabangan Dam in Nueva Ecija, and even Magat Dam in Isabela?on the protocols they use in releasing water.

Local executives in areas beside Laguna Lake aired their concern on the projection that it would take four to five months before the floods triggered there by Tropical Storm ?Ondoy? could be drained.

Environment Secretary Lito Atienza blamed the flooding on the fish pens set up in Laguna Lake.

Atienza said 58,000 hectares of the 90,000-hectare lake were occupied by fish pens.

Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) officials reiterated the need to immediately dredge the Napindan channel to help drain the floods and to ensure that illegal settlers would not return to the danger zones there.

Legarda is scheduled to visit Laguna Lake today with LLDA chair Edgardo Manda.

?Their level best?

Tampinco said the protocol called for the dam operators to coordinate with the Pagasa weather bureau to provide them data on rainfall and allow them to determine subsequent actions.

He said it was not only the dam waters that contributed to the flooding in Pangasinan but also two other river streams. He claimed that he and other officials could identify ?which localities were flooded by the river streams.?

Tampinco also said dam engineers did ?their level best and based their actions on what they felt was provided for as guidance in the protocol.?

This last remark of Tampinco drew a reaction from Legarda and Pangasinan Rep. Mark Cojuangco, who cited the earlier testimony of Napocor chief hydrologist Russell Rigor that there was no such protocol and that engineers merely based their action on their own judgment.

Judgment call

Tampinco retorted that Rigor was not assigned to oversee the San Roque Dam and that it was Alexander Palada, Napocor chief of flooding forecasting and warning system for dam operations, who knew about the matter.

Legarda asked Palada whether it was possible to calibrate the water to be released rather than releasing it in one sweep.

In reply, Palada said the dam did not release water days before Pepeng made a U-turn and slammed Central and northern Luzon on Oct. 6 because the water level there was only at 277 masl, or far from the critical 280-290 masl.

?The dam was able to catch the first salvo of Pepeng,? Palada said.

He said that when Pepeng returned and the critical water level was reached, the dam released water at 500 cms around midnight of Oct. 6 on the premise that people were not out in the streets but in their homes.

But in the course of being questioned by Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, Palada admitted that engineers also used their judgment in determining when to release water.

Between rock and hard place

Dr. Carlos Arcilla, associate professor at the University of the Philippines and director of the National Institute of Geological Sciences, said the suggestion of his group was that the flow of information on the release of water from the San Roque Dam should be modified.

Said Arcilla: ?Napocor and the dam officials do not have their own weather stations. Pagasa cannot give rain estimates because there?s no Doppler radar. So if you?re a dam engineer, you?re caught between a rock and a hard place. ... Under your protocol, you can only release 500 cms. But then the water is still rising. How will you release it? Who will you consult?

?There?s a communication issue that has to be studied carefully.?

Arcilla acknowledged that there was a need to change the protocol that limited the release of water to 500 cms.

He said a group that included academics, dam experts, hydrologists and geologists would help advise on how the protocol could be revised.

?The 500 cms [limit] is clearly inadequate for the extreme weather event that happened,? he said.

Continued blame

As in Wednesday?s hearing, the blame game continued as Pangasinan executives again blamed the dam operators for the inundation of nearly 80 percent of the province.

Both Cojuangco and Pangasinan Gov. Amado Espino said the protocol at San Roque Dam was useless.

?The protocol is defective and irrelevant. What?s the point if it?s to warn the people? The protocol is to prevent [disasters],? Cojuangco said.

Espino angrily questioned the point of warning the people when authorities could not even say how much water would be released.

?Did you say that the water to be released would be raging? You only said that water would be released. Is that right?? Espino said.

And if the excessive rains were to be blamed for the flooding, he wondered why other places in the province were not inundated.

Pagasa chief Prisco Nilo also disagreed with Napocor officials that the weather bureau would have to determine whether the dam gates should be opened.

He said Pagasa was only there to disseminate information on rainfall and weather events.

House inquiry

In a text message, Cojuangco said the House of Representatives would proceed with its own inquiry into the release of water from the San Roque Dam, with an eye to drawing up a new standard operating procedure that would recommend water releases in small volumes prior to the arrival of a typhoon.

?The House has decided to form its own committee so that it may conduct an inquiry and form its own specific recommendations. I will act as chair of the committee. The members will be from dam-affected districts,? he said.

Cojuangco also said ?the emerging consensus? in the House ?is the need to revisit all the regulations, procedures and protocols regarding dam operations and ensure that if they err, they err on the side of safety and caution.? With a report from Gil C. Cabacungan Jr.