Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso on Wednesday gave officials 24 hours to clear floodwaters and debris from Arranque Market, which was submerged by heavy rains brought by typhoon “Crising.”

Domagoso issued the directive after inspecting declogging operations along Taft Avenue, from the Taft-UN Avenue intersection down to the Philippine General Hospital area.

The mayor expressed shock upon seeing the situation at Arranque Market, where shoulder-deep water inundated the ground floor, impacting vendors selling meat, fish and live pets.

With this, Domagoso ordered the City Engineering Office to continue siphoning the water using a heavy vacuum truck to drain the flooded area and instructed Disaster Preparedness and Coordination chief Kenneth Amurao to conduct a thorough water flushing of the entire market to remove dirt and silt left by the floodwaters, followed by spraying with an antibacterial solution.

“This must be finished in 24 hours so vendors can go back to normal the following day,” Domagoso said. “They are suffering, so we need to speed up the cleanup so they can continue with their lives.”

During his inspection, Domagoso cited that most of the city’s drainage systems were clogged and buried by sand, with others no longer functioning due to blockages.