MALOLOS CITY, Bulacan —The Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO) has notified eight municipal DRRMOs in Bulacan that the National Power Corp. (Napocor) began discharging waters from the Angat Dam on Tuesday.
The Napocor made the move after the water level reached more than 215 meters, which is 3 meters beyond its spilling level of 212 meters.
Bulacan PDRRMO officer Liz Mungcal, however, said the water release will hardly be felt and will not cause any flooding in the towns.
Mungcal said that according to the “notice on dam discharge warning operation” sent by the Napocor on Monday, Angat Dam will open its spillway at 8 a.m. on Tuesday.
Mungcal said that according to M.T.L. Serra, Flood Operation Manager of Napocor, Gate 2 of the Angat Dam spillway was opened on Tuesday morning at 0.5 meters with an estimated discharge of 70 cubic meters per second.
She said the water discharge is very minimal and will hardly have any effect in the towns of Norzagaray, Angat, Bustos, San Rafael, Baliwag, Plaridel, Pulilan, Calumpit, Hagonoy and Paombong where the Angat River and the discharge waters will sneak through.
The Napocor notice also stated that the reservoir elevation needs to be lowered in anticipation of expected inflow of heavy rain due to combination of monsoon and easterly winds.
Mungcal also dispelled rumors being circulated by alleged “prophets of doom” that Angat Dam is bound to break and is set to release big volume of water this month to negate it.
The PDRRMO officer said that she and her office has been receiving inquiries from alarmed residents since the last days of December 2015 that officials of Angat Dam and Bustos Dam, which are both undergoing “Phase 1” repairs and strengthening, will release big volume of waters anytime this January.
“This is not true. This is baseless and is just part of an irresponsible hoax to create panic and confusion. We should not believe on it,” Mungcal said.
She said that most of the queries came from residents of the coastal towns of Calumpit and Hagonoy, who spent a “wet Christmas” after being hit by backfloods from Nueva Ecija and Pampanga before Christmas Day and was worsened by the huge water volume released by the Angat and Bustos dams.
The said hoax became more sinister after some groups claimed that the rumors are part of another scheme to discredit the good job being done by the provincial government and the administration of President Aquino, as well.
Some sectors even claimed that rumors began circulating after Angat and Bustos dams released big volume of waters at the height of the backfloods that aggravated the sufferings of the people of Calumpit and Hagonoy.
Mungcal said that during that time, Gov. Wilhelmino M. Sy-Alvarado has been calling the attention of the national government, including Executive Secretary Paquito “Jojo” Ochoa Jr., to stop the release of big volume of waters to give the people of Calumpit and Hagonoy town some “elbow room” to recover from the backfloods that were submerging their villages during that time.
