Enrile: Sudden release of water from dams may have caused Mindanao disaster

MANILA, Philippines—Astounded by the volume of water and mud that swept and killed more than 1,000 people in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan cities in December, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said on Sunday he would ask the Senate energy committee to look into the possibility that the heavy flooding in the cities were caused by the release of waters in government-run hydroelectric power plants there.

In a radio interview, Enrile expressed doubt that the flooding in the two cities were caused solely by heavy rains brought by storm Sendong and because of illegal logging.

“Can a big flood occur so soon that it could destroy houses and others if the waters in rivers just gradually rose?” said Enrile, whose previous businesses included logging, which has been largely blamed for the tragedy in the two northern Mindanao cities.

Saying he grew up living near the forests, Enrile said it was possible that a “big body of water” was released in these cities.

The Senate president pointed out that the rivers that swelled in Iligan and Cagayan de Oro were linked to two hydroelectric power plant systems run by the National Power Corp.

He said these were the Polangi hydroelectric power plant in Cagayan de Oro and the Maria Cristina hydroelectric power plant system in Iligan City.

Enrile said water would have not risen so soon there “unless you release, you open the floodgate of a dam.”

He pointed out this happened in Luzon recently as he raised as well the possibility that the deadly floods that swept Ormoc years ago and recently Lake Cebu were because of waters released from the dams there.

The Senate president said even if forests were bald of trees, it wasn’t possible for “tons” of water to just rush so soon during rains.

“People would also immediately feel the water was rising. This was like a tsunami that happened in Iligan and CDO because even land was unearthed,” he said, adding that logs and even boulders came down from the mountains.

Enrile dismissed as “city birds having no experience in jungle life” those officials speaking about the tragedy that befell the cities.

“Why don’t they look at what happened to the dams in Mindanao?” he said.

Enrile said he was not saying he was right but that he could not help but think it seemed the rivers there were generated floods like a “tsunami.”

He said the government was probably afraid to raise this point because the families of those who were killed would likely make claims for their loved ones.

Still, Enrile said he would ask the Senate energy committee “to check on what really happened.”