MMDA to seek inclusion of ‘drainage master plan’ in 2027 nat’l budget

MANILA, Philippines — The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) will propose the allocation of fund for Metro Manila’s drainage master plan in the 2027 national budget or the General Appropriations Act (GAA).

MMDA chair Don Artes said this on Tuesday after Metro Manila Council (MMC) President and San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora suggested securing national government funds to swiftly dredge the 9.8-kilometer San Juan River.

READ: San Juan River breaches critical level amid monsoon rain

Article continues after this advertisement

According to Artes, the MMDA will coordinate with the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to estimate the budget for the drainage master plan.

FEATURED STORIES

NEWSINFO

NEWSINFO

NEWSINFO

The project is not yet included in the National Expenditure Program (NEP).

“We’ll estimate. And it depends on whether or not it will be granted,” Artes said in an ambush interview on Tuesday following an MMC meeting at the MMDA building in Pasig City.

“We’ll definitely propose as suggested by [Zamora], but there is no assurance. Same with the drainage master plan. We’ll estimate how much is needed,” he noted.

“We’ll coordinate with the DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highways) to estimate the amount needed, and to fund it, and make it happen,” he added.

Article continues after this advertisement

Funding of drainage master plan

During the MMC meeting this Tuesday, Zamora raised the topic on dredging the San Juan River, which he noted flows through different cities, such as Quezon City, San Juan City, Mandaluyong City and Manila.

Zamora pointed out that aside from help from private company San Miguel Corp. through the “Oplan Kontra Baha” initiative, the San Juan River must be rehabilitated immediately through government funding.

Article continues after this advertisement

The mayor emphasized the positive impacts of dredging the river, citing that during the recent continued rainfall in Metro Manila, the floodwater level in San Juan City “was no longer like before.”

“However, our San Juan River is long. It is 9.8 kilometers. So if we could seek the support of the MMDA to include the funds for this in our GAA,” he explained.

“San Miguel, of course, they are private. They’re helping us. But it’s also embarrassing in a way to push them to dredge the entire river at the pace that we would like, because they are being generous,” Zamora said.

“It’s different when we actually have an allocation from our national government to fund the dredging of the San Juan River,” he pointed out.

After saying this, Artes immediately responded to affirm the MMDA’s support.

“Maybe, Mayor Zam (Zamora), this is my commitment to you: We’ll take an active role so that the Drainage Master Plan in Metro Manila can be funded this year, so that we can implement it as soon as possible,” Artes told Zamora during the meeting.

The MMDA chair said they can first focus on funding the feasibility study for the Drainage Master Plan, noting that the DPWH had already finished it.

“Our target used to be, aside from the feasibility study down to detailed engineering design, maybe we can limit it to the feasibility study so that we can only study the size of the drainages, the elevations and all, as well as the interconnectivity, so that we need less funds,” Artes told the local government official.

“It is more expensive to have a detailed engineering design,” Artes explained.

“We will push for the implementation of a comprehensive drainage master plan to be included in our GAA at least for the feasibility studies,” he added.

READ: DBM submits proposed P7.2-trillion 2027 national budget to Marcos

Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.

Your subscription has been successful.

On Monday, the House of Representatives—through a briefing by the Development Budget Coordination Committee—formally began scrutinizing the proposed P7.2-trillion 2027 NEP after it was transmitted to Congress last Aug. 11. /apl