RIZAL, Philippines – Two days after Typhoon Enteng left the Philippine Area of Responsibility, Antipolo Mayor Casimiro “Jun” Ynares III said on Friday, September 6, that the local government remains “blind” on the primary cause of flooding in the province.

“But to be honest, Mr. President, bulag po kami dito sa LGU,” Ynares said during a situation briefing presided by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Friday. (We’re blind here in the local government unit).

Reports from several areas in Rizal province saw flooding and landslides, taking away eight lives.

Ynares said there’s a confluence of many factors that may have contributed to the flooding, including quarrying.

“The fact remains sa dami po ng rason, ‘di po namin alam which contributes the most,” Ynares said. “Is it mining? Is it urbanization? Is it deforestation? Is it siltation? Is it bad land use planning or implementation?”

(The fact remains that because of the many reasons, we don’t know which contributes the most.)

The mayor said they are commissioning researchers from the University of the Philippines to conduct a study. “But you would be saving us a lot of money if the national government has a study identifying which contributes the most to flooding,” he said.

Ynares himself served six years as Rizal governor from 2007 to 2013. His father, Casimiro Ynares Jr., became governor in 1992. Since then, the Ynares family has occupied the top provincial government post for 22 years. The incumbent governor now is her sister, Nina Ynares.

Rizal province, which sits next to Metro Manila, has seen a rise in urbanization and population growth — from 2.5 million in 2010 up to 3.3 million by 2020.

Flooding during Typhoon Enteng in some parts of Rizal may be new — such as in Sampaloc, Tanay — but it’s also no secret that several towns in Rizal are part of the Marikina River Basin.

This means land in Rizal catches rainwater and then channels it to the Marikina River. Changes in land cover in such an area through the years have reduced the ability of land to absorb water. (READ: DENR targets 3 million trees planted in Upper Marikina Watershed by 2028)

Is planting trees enough?

Rizal Governor Nina Ynares said she believes that “a lot of the aggravating factors are the environmental issues.” She said that for the past 20 years, there have been efforts from the provincial government to encourage tree planting.
 
“But for 20 years now, the province has been very active with our YES (yes-to-green) program,” she said. “Thus, we encourage tree planting and recycling, hoping that this would contribute to lessening our flood problems.”

In light of urbanization and growing population, however, reforestation can only do so much.

Environment Undersecretary Carlos Primo David said in a press briefing on Thursday, that reforestation in the Upper Marikina Watershed cannot be the sole solution to flooding because “a bigger portion [of land], outside of the control of DENR, is already paved.”

All the rainwater that will fall in the watershed, David said, will then be converted into flooding.

“Therefore our solution is to reforest the 26,100 (hectares) as much as we can but also somehow do intervention measures in the Lower Marikina Watershed that is now controlled by various LGUs of NCR [National Capital Region] and Rizal,” said David in a mix of Filipino and English. – Rappler.com