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Romualdez donates relief goods, as House solons set flood probe

Martin Romualdez

HOUSE Majority Leader and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez on yesterday donated relief goods and other essential items to two Isabela solons as more lawmakers sought to investigate in aid of legislation the cause of massive flooding that submerged the provinces of Cagayan and Isabela during the onslaught of Typhoon Ulysses.

Romualdez, chairman of the powerful House committee on rules, turned over the goods to 4th District Isabela Rep. Alyssa Sheena Tan and 6th District Isabela Rep. Faustino “Inno” Dy to aid their constituents battered by Typhoon Ulysses.

“Let’s us be the source of inspiration and strength of our distressed kababayans during these trying times,” said Romualdez, a lawyer and accountability of dam operators in the calamities that took the lives and livelihood of many Filipinos,” Herrera said in a resolution she filed on Monday.

Typhoon Ulysses, the 21st typhoon to hit the country this year, brought rainfall ranging from 271 millimeters to 356 millimeters of rainfall, far below that brought by Tropical Storm Ondoy in 2009 of 455 millimeters of rainfall.

As of Nov. 15, the official death toll of Typhoon Ulysses climbed to 67, with dozens more injured or missing. To date, damage to agriculture and infrastructure was pegged at more than P1.5 billion.

Inasmuch as the typhoon brought significant rainfall, Herrera noted that much of the flooding was further aggravated by the opening of six dams—Angat, Ipo, La Mesa, Ambulao, Binga, San Roque and Magat.

Herrera said the opening of these dams intensified flashfloods in Metro Manila and the provinces of Isabela, Pangasinan, Benguet, Isabela and Cagayan.

She said there were numerous reports that the six dams released water “not in a gradual manner, but rather a hasty and rushed manner.”

“For Magat dam alone, on November 12, 2020, the dam opened seven gates, discharging 6,244 cubic meters of water per second,” Herrera pointed out.