The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has called for the creation of a unified, integrated master plan to address the country’s recurring flooding problems through coordinated, long-term solutions.
Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said that flood control remains a top government priority, as emphasized in President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s recent State of the Nation Address (SONA). She underscored the need for a consolidated strategy for Metro Manila’s flooding issues, with stronger collaboration from local government units (LGUs) willing to share funding responsibilities.
“Among the assignments is to provide us with a menu of solutions. Not only one flood control works for every area. So we need a menu of possible solutions on the kind of projects we need to present to LGUs,” Pangandaman explained.
The Philippines already has the Metro Manila Flood Management Master Plan, approved in 2012 by the World Bank and the then-National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), which was developed in response to the devastation caused by Tropical Storm Ondoy in 2009. The DBM now seeks to expand and integrate such efforts nationwide for better disaster preparedness.