Martin Romualdez proposes flood-control summit

Senatorial hopeful and Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez is calling for the immediate holding of a national summit on flooding to search for lasting solutions to the perennial problem.

In a statement, Romualdez, whose province was devastated by Supertyphoon “Yolanda” (international name: “Haiyan”) in 2013, said the government “never runs out of press releases or statements on supposed billions of pesos worth of flood-control projects in various areas nationwide.”

“But, as always, in just an hour or two of heavy rainfall, floods and its accompanying inconveniences like traffic jams automatically follow,” he said.

“Everyone must make an effort to show ‘malasakit’ (sympathy) and see how we can all pitch in to address the flooding problem and find out why it hasn’t been solved despite all the money spent on flood-control measures,” Romualdez said.

The congressman proposed a flooding summit to be attended by representatives from the national government, local government units (LGU) and the private sector, including informal settlers on waterways or flood-prone areas.