DAGUPAN CITY—A group of Pangasinan lawyers on Friday asked a court here to order the National Power Corp. and the San Roque Power Corp. (SRPC) to decommission the San Roque Dam in San Manuel town to stop it from causing “further destruction” and “great and irreparable injury” to the province.

In a class suit filed at the Regional Trial Court here, the Pangasinan Trial Lawyers’ Association (PTLA) also filed damage claims amounting to P2.4 million, which they said they incurred when the dam released “enormously large volume of excess water” from its reservoir from Oct. 8 to 10 as Typhoon “Pepeng” dumped heavy rains when it battered northern Luzon.

“[The claim] for damages is secondary. Principally, it is the specific performance—an action to compel them (Napocor and SRPC) to decommission or close the San Roque Dam—that we are after,” said retired Court of Appeals Justice Teodoro Regino, the lead counsel and one of the 24 lawyer-complainants.

In their complaint, the lawyers accused Napocor and SRPC of gross negligence and wanton disregard of Pangasinan residents’ safety when they released “extraordinarily” large volumes of water from the dam’s spillway gates.

“Dam officials unjustifiably waited for the [dam’s] water level to reach [a] very critical level when they opened the spillway gate midnight of Oct. 7, when the water level was 287.65 meters above sea level (masl),” the lawyers said.

The dam has a maximum water level of 290 masl.

“At 3 a.m. on Oct. 9, San Roque Dam was already releasing water at 5,072 cubic meters per second (cms). Water level at the reservoir was already 289.05 masl. Dam officials released water for more than 10 hours at 5,072 (cms) into the … Agno River,” they said.

As a result, they said, the rampaging excess water overtopped and eroded dikes along the Agno River, destroying everything in its path, causing massive flooding in 38 Pangasinan towns and cities.

The provincial government had reported that at least P8-billion worth of property, crops and fish were destroyed by the floods. At least 57 people died.

“If Napocor had considered the 280- to 290-masl water level to be already critical, why was it that dam officials … did not order the release of water early on when the water started breaching the 280-masl [mark]?” the lawyers said.

Dagupan Councilor Jose Netu Tamayo, former PTLA president, said other people who may wish to join the class suit may still come and join the fight.

“We can amend the complaint and include them if they want,” Tamayo said.