SEN. Francis Escudero has rejected the “outdated-guidelines” defense resorted to by officials of the National Power Corp. (Napocor) to avoid responsibility for the death of residents and destruction of properties due to massive release of water from dams without ample warning during two recent typhoons in Northern Luzon.

“There is no excuse for reckless decisions when lives are at stake,” Escudero said, adding, “the admission of the Napocor that its guidelines were outdated shouldn’t automatically excuse them [officials] from any possible prosecution.”

Escudero said he is “more determined than ever to assist the victims in filing a class suit against the operators of dams. Their greed was more devastating than the rains brought about by [Typhoons] Pepeng and Ondoy.”

This developed as Sen. Loren Legarda, who chairs the Senate Climate Change Committee, gave the Napocor a November 30 deadline to revise and update their protocol for the safe release of dam water, and the sending of advanced warnings to local communities affected by dam spills.

In Friday’s public hearing, Legarda noted that Napocor officials admitted “there was a lapse in communication in opening the dam. While that admission is appreciated, they need to step it up and revise the outdated, inefficient protocol on which they operate,” she said.

Legarda also called on government agencies to set up the country’s early-warning system, especially with extreme weather events becoming the norm.

“Timely preventive response to disaster risk requires effective early- warning systems that are technically sound, politically viable and communally acceptable. It will take concerted efforts from government and civil society to curb the growing disaster risks due to climate change. We need to secure human life and livelihood, and protect our hard-earned socioeconomic gains,” she said.

In a separate statement, Escudero noted that Napocor has drowned for the second time the residents of Pangasinan in last Friday’s climate-change committee hearing after their executives commended their dam operators for following a protocol which killed at least 20 people after billions of liters of water of the San Roque Dam were released into the low-lying towns of Pangasinan.

“How can you applaud a judgment when the end result was loss of lives and property? Have they seen the destruction the massive floods brought to the towns of Rosales, San Nicolas, Tayug, Asingan and Villasis? This poor decision brought the provincial and local governments to their knees,” he asserted.

Escudero maintained that if the engineers or any of the officials decided to start discharging water at 240, 250 or at most 260 meters above sea level (masl), then the dikes could have withstood the brunt of raging waters and avoided overflowing the Agno River.

He also hit the dam operators for blaming every government official in the Senate hearing. He said that besides the Department of Public Works and Highways, they also pinned the fault of their decisions on the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa).

Napocor president Froilan Tampinco was quoted as saying that they relied on Pagasa for calculating the amount of rainfall.

“Their incapability to make important decisions can only be evident in the destruction which we are now seeing. Pagasa’s job is to forecast. Napocor’s officers waited long before they realized that the dam may overspill,” he added.

DOE’s deadline to Napocor

The Department of Energy (DOE) on Friday gave the Napocor until Monday to report whether the state-run power generator’s officials and engineers indeed followed protocols for releasing dam water, amid calls to hold them criminally and administratively liable for the mistimed release of water from the San Roque Dam at the height of Typhoon Pepeng.

Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes had issued an order to avert a repeat of the reported abrupt release of water from the San Roque Dam last week, which is being blamed by local government officials of Pangasinan for the flooding that inundated nearly 80 percent of the province.

Dam operators had insisted they had no choice but to release the water rather than risk having the dam break, which would have caused a cataclysm. But provincial officials and some lawmakers said the phasing of the release was wrong, i.e., water was allowed to build up to dangerous levels, and then abruptly released, thus choking the natural drainage systems in the mountains and plains and waterways, and causing sudden, massive floods in villages.

Reyes asked Tampinco to recommend changes in the protocols, procedures and mechanisms followed or used in the release of water by the dam, and in the issuance of advice to government agencies, local government units and the public.

Susan Espinueva, officer in charge of Pagasa’s hydrometeorology division, said the dam was still able to hold the water brought by rains from Typhoon Pepeng’s initial landfall. However, more rains fell when the typhoon returned and became stationary over northern Luzon.

She explained that there is a protocol for the release of water from the dams.

Under the protocol, Pagasa provides Napocor with all the weather-related information such as rainfall forecast, although the agency can’t provide the volume of rain.

Based on the forecast, Napocor will assess the inflow of water into the dams based on actual rainfall and the expected rainfall, and will decide whether dam gates or spillways should be opened.

Miriam’s bill endorsed

Meanwhile, Malacañang said on Sunday that the proposed bill penalizing obstructions in the country’s waterways “should be given due attention” in Congress, especially after the painful lessons learned from Typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng in Luzon.

Deputy Presidential Spokesman Gary Olivar said in a radio interview the proposed bill of Sen. Miriam Santiago could be considered part of an overall redevelopment plan for Metro Manila.

“This should be given due attention because we have seen the extent of the damage caused by weak planning....I think a law like that would have a place within an overall revised planning framework for developing Metro Manila,” Olivar said.

Santiago is proposing hefty penalties on individuals or firms found building on waterways that cause frequent and massive flooding.

Olivar also said the Palace welcomes the inputs of former President Fidel Ramos on improving national-disaster and risk management.

He was reacting to the former Chief Executive’s allegation that faulty flood-control dikes and President Arroyo’s decision to abolish the Agno River Basin Development Commission (ARBDC) had contributed to the massive flooding in Pangasinan.

“We are in favor of any solution that will...minimize over the long term, number one, the vulnerability of our provinces like Pangasinan from natural disasters, and, number two, that will improve our capability to respond, and relief and rescue efforts,” Olivar said.

Ramos had said that the abolition of the ARBDC, which he created in 1997, had compromised flood-control dikes in the province.  (With P. Isla)