Bid to form river body revived

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—The Regional Development Council (RDC) in Central Luzon has not abandoned a proposal to revive the Pampanga River Control System (PRCS), which was abolished in 2005 when some of its functions were taken over by the Mount Pinatubo Emergency Project Management Office.

Bulacan Gov. Wilhelmino Sy-Alvarado, RDC chair, and Pampanga Gov. Lilia Pineda, chair of the RDC sectoral committee on social development, sought the inclusion of the resolution reviving the PRCS in the new RDC.

Bulacan and Pampanga provinces are downstream of the 260-kilometer-long Pampanga River that originates from Caraballo mountains and which empties into Manila Bay.

Last year, Typhoons “Lando” and “Nona” caused flooding that lasted more than a month.

The resolution, addressed to the Department of Public Works and Highways

(DPWH), was approved in 2013 but had not been addressed. The DPWH instead proposed using portions of the 32,000-hectare Candaba swamp in Pampanga and 12,000-ha San Antonio swamp in Nueva Ecija province as flood basins.

With the council endorsing the PRCS revival, it is expected to be absorbed into the priority agenda of the new RDC, Alvarado said.

He said an agency must be formed specifically to maintain, dredge and clean the river to ease flooding.

The PRCS’ last project was the Pampanga Delta Development Project-flood control component that widened the mouth of the Pampanga River to 750 meters.

Built using a Japanese loan worth 8.643 million yen, the project was delayed for 72 months due to protests by residents. Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon