Taguig village to realtor: End floods

BAYBREEZE Executive Village during the 2012 flood that took months to recede INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

ANILA, Philippines—Tired of seeing their community go underwater for months during the rainy season, residents of a Taguig City subdivision are pressing a longtime complaint against a major land developer, saying it should “make up for its shortcomings” and address recurring floods in the area.

The Baybreeze Executive Village Homeowners’ Association first filed a complaint in the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB) in November last year in a bid to save their lakeside community. Ten months later, they detailed their grievances in a supplemental position paper sent to the board on Sept. 3.

The group representing about 2,000 residents asked the HLURB to investigate whether Sta. Lucia Realty and Development Inc. “could be held liable” for failing to take concrete flood-control measures.

The complaint cited the residents’ suggestions for Sta. Lucia to raise the level of all the roads and build a wall or riprap around the middle-class village against the rising waters of Laguna de Bay. It also drew attention to the leaking water pipes which they said had jacked up their utility bills.

The 89-hectare subdivision in Barangay Hagonoy is flood-free so far this year. But according to association chair Felix Guda, the complaint was about preventing a repeat of past calamities.

The problem started in 2009, when the monster Typhoon “Ondoy” hit Metro Manila, but the worst came in 2012, when monsoon rains in August raised the water level and forced 230 of the 350 resident families to seek shelter elsewhere, some not returning until Christmastime.

August Robel de la Paz, the association’s secretary, said the C-6 Road dike project which started construction in 2007 was mainly to blame. Instead of saving Baybreeze from flooding, it trapped water inside the village.

According to Guda, around 50 homes have been abandoned since the 2012 flood and offered for sale. “Some of us have already lost hope that our situation here can still improve, so they just decided to vacate their properties and sell them at bargain prices,” he said.

Those who stay

But the majority of the residents have chosen to stay. “As much as possible, we would like continue living here, in houses amid greenery and fresh air, where fresh fish caught in the lake are sold very cheap and literally at our doorstep, ” Guda said.

He said the association finally decided to take their complaint to the HLURB “to demand that Sta. Lucia make up for its shortcomings,” adding that the developer could actually attract new property buyers by doing their suggested improvements.

“So far, what they (Sta. Lucia) have done is to raise the road level near the gate of the subdivision, which remains unfinished up to now. That is not enough,” De la Paz stressed.

In a phone interview, Sta. Lucia Realty president and chief executive officer Exequiel Robles explained that “negotiations” were going on with the homeowners’ association.

More repairs ahead

“We have already started developing a portion of the road, and we agreed to repair and develop other existing facilities like the clubhouse and the basketball court,” Robles told the Inquirer.

As to the construction of a riprap, the company executive noted that one was already built for Baybreeze years ago, but it was eventually destroyed by the flood from the swelling Laguna de Bay.

“We moved earth there to raise the ground level, but through the years the water also rose because the lake had become heavily silted,” he said, when asked if the company had anticipated the flooding problem at the time Baybreeze was still being developed.