Marcos eyes revisiting Bicol River Basin Development Project

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. visits flood victims in evacuation centers in Bula town and Naga City in Camarines Sur on Saturday, October 26 2024. As of Saturday morning, or five days since torrential rains spawned by Severe Tropical Storm Kristine (international name: Trami) began flooding the province, most of the villages in Camarines Sur remain submerged in floodwater.| PHOTO: Screengrabbed from Bongbong Marcos’ Facebook live

MANILA, Philippines — After the onslaught of Severe Tropical Storm Kristine, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said on Saturday that the Bicol River Basin Development Project needs to be revisited to know and resolve the flooding in the region.

Speaking in the situational briefing in Naga City, Marcos said that the floodwaters in the Bicol region are taking too long to subside, different from the situation in Batangas and Cavite when he visited these places on Friday.

“In Batangas and Cavite, the floodwater immediately subsided. Here, the floodwater did not subside. But that’s the proverbial problem of the Bicol River Basin, that’s why we need to think of what we are going to do in the long-term because you cannot expect any changes,” Marcos said in a mix of Filipino and English.

READ: Kristine aftermath in Camarines Sur: 9 of 36 towns still flooded

Marcos then noted that he found out about the Bicol River Basin Development Program, a USAID [U.S Agency for International Development] project in the early 1970s.

“Despite some challenges, it seems that it was a big help. However, it was not finished. In 1986, when the government changed, the project was gone,” he added in Filipino

He then said: “We have to revisit it now. Iba na ang conditions ngayon (The conditions are different now.).”

Marcos also said that the program used to cater to different measures such as flood control and farm-to-market roads. However, he emphasized that flood control must be the focus.

“We have to focus specifically on flood control… The floodwaters were too much. We have flood control [projects] but they can’t hold this amount of floodwaters,” he added in a mix of Filipino and English.

Further, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Manuel Bonoan said that the Bicol River Basin flood control project was updated in July 2024.

“Under the Philippine-Korean project facilitation, yung Bicol River basin flood control project was already updated only this July 2024 including the feasibility study for the flood control program. By early next year, we’ll be doing the digital engineering design,” Bonoan said.

He then added that it will be funded by the Korean Exim Bank where the civil works will be implemented in late 2025 or early 2026.

READ: NDRRMC: Received death reports due to Kristine climb to 81; 1 validated

Bicol region was one of the regions badly hit by Kristine, leaving about 2,236,608 individuals or 473,920 families affected, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.

In a report by DPWH on Saturday, 25 road sections in six regions, of which 12 of them were in the region, remain closed to traffic.