Residents wade through floodwaters selling food, rice, and essentials — some on foot, some by boat — in Macabebe, Masantol, and Candaba, Pampanga. Neighbors help neighbors, share what they have, and keep going. The flood rises — but so does resilience.
Franco Regala/Screengrabs
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MACABEBE, Pampanga — Streets have turned into rivers across parts of Pampanga, but life has not stopped. In communities submerged for weeks, residents themselves have become lifelines for their neighbors.
Some paddle through floodwaters selling tilapia, talangka, pandesal and hot meals door-to-door, keeping livelihoods alive. Others navigate the same waterways carrying sacks of rice, lugaw and other supplies to distribute for free or on credit.
“Nagpapasalamat kami sa mga tumutulong. May mga dumating din relief from abroad,” resident Reggie Pineda said. “Tuloy lang, mga kabaryo natin — kailangan pa rin mabuhay.”
Parts of Macabebe, including San Vicente, San Isidro and Santa Rita, remain under waist- to neck-deep floodwaters. Schools have also been inundated and rendered unusable.
Even as waters recede elsewhere, communities in Masantol, Minalin, Candaba, Bacolor, Sasmuan, Guagua, San Luis, Santa Ana and San Simon remain flooded, with fresh rains adding to residents’ difficulties.
In Masantol, flooded streets have become waterways for daily transportation. Boat rides between Masantol and Macabebe now cost P70 for regular passengers and P60 for senior citizens.
Resident Jun Licup said portions of Macabebe, Minalin and Masantol sit within the natural catch basin of the Pampanga River.
The areas are among the lowest points of the Pampanga River Basin and are vulnerable to tidal backflow, siltation and land subsidence. Residents also blame alleged illegal fish pens for obstructing waterways and worsening flooding.
But amid the hardship, communities have organized their own response.
In San Vicente, residents ferry rice and other supplies by boat from one doorstep to another. Assistance has also arrived from outside the province and abroad.
“Life must go on. Nothing will happen — we will only go hungry if we do nothing,” Raffy Maria, a resident of flood-prone San Pedro Cutud in San Fernando City, told DAILY TRIBUNE.
Gov. Lilia “Nanay” Pineda earlier urged residents to move to safer areas whenever possible and seek assistance when needed. Provincial and local governments have also deployed relief and other support for affected families.
Even traditions persist amid the floods. In Candaba, residents continue the annual Fiesta ng Danum, or Water Festival, honoring the waters that sustain their communities even as those same waters rise around them.
For Pampanga’s flooded communities, business and livelihoods continue because they must. And while residents wait for lasting solutions to their perennial flooding, they are not waiting to help one another.
