President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on Friday lamented the seriousness of the siltation of rivers in typhoon-hit Ilocos Norte during an aerial inspection to assess the damages posed by the recent onslaught of super typhoon “Julian.”

The President led a situation briefing on the effects of the super typhoon at the Ilocos Norte Provincial Capitol in Laoag City and cited that the super typhoon badly affected the flood control and river control works; the dike and slope protection works and national roads in Ilocos Norte.

He also stressed the need to immediately resolve the siltation problem in the area and mentioned damages caused by the siltation problem in the area.

“Why is there so much damage to flood control works. They have been there for a long time. They survived many typhoons and floods already before,” said the President during the situation briefing.

“I don’t remember the rivers being that shallow before. I’ve never seen them this shallow in all the time that I spent here in Ilocos. They’ve been silted for a long time. There’s already a tree so it was not really dredged. I think that’s the main problem that we are facing. It’s the siltation and that is what causing all of this damage that we are seeing,” he added.