Kasiglahan Village Elementary School, Montalban, Rizal
12 August 2012

President Benigno S. Aquino III led the distribution of family food packs to 2,305 families or 11,530 individual victims of flooding in Kasiglahan Village, a relocation site for informal settlers.

In his message, President Aquino said that they will research on scientifically proven design to improve the water ways system in Manila to mitigate flooding problems. He mentioned several strategies that the government will look into like dredging, building concrete barriers, and others which will be presented by next week. He added that while the government seeks out permanent solutions to flooding, evacuees must also do their part by not putting up residences in areas vulnerable to flooding such as the riverbanks.

According to the evacuees, floodwaters almost reached the roof of their houses after the neighboring creek from Wawa Dam overflowed from torrential rainfall brought by the southwest monsoon last Tuesday. Although floodwaters have already receded since yesterday, evacuees from Phases 1K-1 and K2 still reside at the Kasiglahan Village Elementary School since some of the housing units have been destroyed by the flooding.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development have been providing relief assistance to more than 15 evacuation sites since the calamity, and will continue to provide assistance until situations in Montalban normalize.

Rizal Governor Junjun Ynares said that he will coordinate with the National Housing Authority (NHA) to have the village investigated to certify that the relocation site is not part of the geo-hazard zone, and will have the residence relocated again if proven otherwise.

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