President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Thursday said an immediate temporary solution was needed to block the water flowing from the damaged Tangos-Tanza Navigational Gate, which is causing severe flooding in Navotas and neighboring cities.

At a situation briefing on the impact of super typhoon “Carina” and the intensified southwest monsoon, Marcos instructed the government agencies concerned to find a solution to prevent further flooding while the navigational gate was being repaired.

Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) acting chairperson Romando Artes told the President the water would continue to flow to communities in Navotas and Malabon during the repair.

Artes said five barangays in Malabon and three in Navotas would continue to be flooded even if there was no typhoon.

The MMDA acting head explained that flooding would be inevitable during the repair because the gate would need to be open and in a flat position.

Sandbags

“What remedy can we use? How can we block it at least, or is there something we can do? At least as an emergency measure, and then we can return to repair it properly,” Marcos said in English and Filipino.

“I want to see what the damage is and if there’s something we can do. Maybe we can use sandbags or something, I don’t know. We need to get an engineer to assess it and tell us what we can do to prevent the continuous water flow. The water level is still high,” Marcos said.

Social Welfare and Development Secretary Rex Gatchalian said the gates had been open for two weeks, and residents in the affected areas had been asking for food packs.

This prompted Marcos to instruct the MMDA and the Department of Public Works and Highways to conduct an engineering assessment.

“I understand now. I know the design. That’s why we’ll use that to figure out something. I don’t know what it will be but we have to figure out something,” he said.

After the situation briefing, Marcos went to Navotas to examine the damaged floodgate.

Navotas Representative Toby Tiangco on Thursday demanded legal action against the company responsible for damaging the gates, emphasizing the need for accountability.

He said that if the flood gates had been operational, the city’s 81 pumping stations would have been able to control the flooding.

“In fact, during Ondoy, the flooding was controlled even if we had only 24 bombastic stations at the time,” Tiangco noted.

The solon said he was closely coordinating with the MMDA, the agency that would file a case against the company responsible for the broken gate. He said he was determined to see to it that the owners of the boat and tugboats at fault are held accountable.