Alice Del Rosario-Mamorno has lived in the pocket communities along 114 G. Araneta in Barangay Tatalon, Quezon City for 30 years. Alice, 55, proudly shared that her humble abode bore witness to the growth of her seven children and, eventually, welcomed her grandchildren as well. 

“We’re considered a big fam [family] around here,” Alice said. 

This decades-long residence made her observant of the little changes within their community. The previously empty parcel of land now serves as home to almost 200 families. Alice could easily recall how different the times were, she said, especially when disaster struck their area. 

“Barangay Tatalon is known to be a flood-prone area,” she said. “That may as well be. But never at the scale it is currently experiencing now,” she shared. 

Swamped communities, overwhelmed authorities

Alice could still remember the large-scale flooding that plagued Barangay Tatalon during the onslaught of Typhoon Carina. The typhoon brought unrelenting rains that inundated the communities along G. Araneta and E. Rodriguez in record time. 

The deluge forced Alice and her family to pack up and head to the evacuation center. Some were not so lucky, Alice shared, as they were stranded in their homes while the floodwaters rose to alarming levels. The rescue boat could not enter the narrow alleys when the waters submerged most of the houses. Even her grandchild wasn’t spared, she lamented, being forced to wait on the roof of their home, just waiting for the floodwaters to subside after the rescue teams failed to evacuate her.

“My grandchild was stranded there. Her father just had to do with braving the flood in order to check on her. Nobody could come get her,” Alice said. 

The same sentiments were echoed by Neddie de Villa, who lived in the community for 50 years. 

“In my 50 years of residence here in Tatalon, it was my first time to evacuate during Typhoon Carina. I didn’t even evacuate when Ondoy happened,” de Villa said. “I mostly did it for my grandchildren,” she added.

Barangay Tatalon, an expansive barangay that spans 96.1 hectares of land, is considered one of the most flood-prone areas in Quezon City. Barangay officials say that the community usually becomes a catch basin for the rainwaters from the more upland barangays. 

“Flood waters from Barangay Talayan flow downstream to Barangay Tatalon. It’s the same thing with Barangay Roxas,” said Barangay Captain Emmanuel Del Mundo in an interview with Manila Today. 

Del Mundo reiterated that while the geographical location of Tatalon makes it a given that flooding may be expected, the barangay tries its best to ensure the safety and security of its residents. 

“We follow the usual guidelines for immediate evacuation. We monitor the rising levels of water and the rainfall advisory. When it gets worse, we conduct forced evacuations. During typhoon Carina, the floodwaters have risen at an alarming level. We had to call for rescue from the City [LGU] to help our trapped constituents,” Del Mundo stated.

Rescue has been proven difficult, officials said, as the current was too strong. Even the Coast Guard’s motorized boat had capsized. 

He also added that the inundated communities along the Meralco line had been completely submerged, with the flood waters almost reaching the electrical lines and even the Skyway pipeline along G. Araneta. 

For Alice, recalling the flood during Carina brought out a different kind of despair, especially in their community. It was not long ago when their community in 114 was affected by a fire. Starting life all over again after this seemed to be more challenging for some of them.

“I evacuated our home when the floodwaters nearly reached the staircase of the third floor of my house,” she shared. “It was not normal flooding. We were lucky that we left early. Some of my neighbors couldn’t leave. Most of them are senior citizens who weren’t able to be rescued. They just went up to the upper floors of their houses or their roofs to wait for the water to subside. As far as I know, out of the 200 families that lived here in 114, 100 families were forced to stay behind and brave the flood. Only half of our community was able to evacuate,” she added. 

Adapting to the new normal

Making a clean slate after a catastrophic deluge seemed to be the norm for Tatalon citizens, as Alice implied that major clean-ups and reconstruction of washed-out homes are recurring realities that the residents face. 

“I’ve added another floor to my home,” she pointed at her home, now a four-storey house made from light materials. “It’s a good thing we decided to add another floor. If we didn’t, our belongings would have been ruined when Carina happened,” she added. 

Alice noted that almost everybody in their community made the conscious decision to upgrade their homes as a precautionary measure for the floods. In the towering shanties of 114, Alice’s house looked as much as everybody else’s. 

Aside from these preventive measures, Alice also shared that her community takes a proactive stance on their own waste management. “We’re trying to do what we can. We know the inconvenience that comes after flooding. The garbage piles up on our streets and nobody else would clean them but us,” she stated.

Barangay officials claim that they have flood mitigation projects and waste management projects in place to manage their perennial problems. Garbage collection comes almost every day to address waste management concerns. The barangay also employs sweepers and Eco-aid workers to address sanitation concerns.

“We have employed sweepers and eco-aide to prevent illegal dumping,” said Del Mundo. He added that the community also has Trash to Cash projects to promote recycling among the residents. 

Officials have emphasized citizen’s responsibility when handling their wastes to alleviate flooding concerns. And while residents mostly agree, some could not help but speculate that specific infrastructure projects might have a bearing on their current situation. 

“I’ve been here since 1978. My husband was born here. Born in 1958. We’ve been staying here for a long time,” said Lolita Embilen, 66. “Before, floodwaters usually subside quickly here. But now, a few more minutes of intense rain would cause flooding that wouldn’t easily go down,” she added.

Embilen is a community leader along the streets of 630 G. Araneta, the pocket community adjacent to 114. Residents of 630 have long been embroiled in land disputes following claims from private individuals, with some clusters being relocated following the reclamation of land. 

Some claimants who own the land in 630 have already developed infrastructure projects in their areas. Embilen supposed that these may have been a factor in their current predicament. 

“Before, when Petron was still not elevated, floodwaters could still flow freely. Now that they elevated it, floods have nowhere to go but here,” Embilen lamented. She added that there were pocket communities near Petron before but they perished when a private claimant reclaimed the area. 

Meanwhile, Alice added that the flooding in their community worsened upon the construction of the Skyway Stage 3 along G. Araneta. 

“Before, during heavy rains, we could see how functional the drainage system was,” she said. “Now, we could only see unflowing stagnant water. It’s as if the system’s always clogged. There’s definitely an impact,” she continued. 

Underlying complications

Developed by San Miguel Corporation, Skyway Stage 3 is part of the 18-kilometer elevated highway that serves as a significant passage connecting the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) to the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX). 

Barangay officials stated that developers initially contacted the barangay before the project started. 

“They’ve reached out to the barangay. The developers need barangay assistance, barangay clearance. We’ve had public consultations and even a People’s Initiative which garnered signatures showing that the residents did not object to such a project,” Del Mundo said. They added that since the project started in 2018, the developers were able to provide jobs for some of the residents. 

Yet when asked about the residents’ speculations involving Skyway’s contribution to Tatalon’s flooding problem, barangay officials have remained ambivalent.

“Well, it might really affect the flooding. The water coming from Skyway goes down to Tatalon, to Araneta, right here in our area,” Del Mundo explained. 

He further added that several factors might also contribute to the problem, such as clogged drainages, owing to lapses caused by some of their declogging operations. 

“The large volume of water coming from Skyway flows down to Tatalon. If you observe the Skyway, there are big pipes underneath wherein the water trickles down. And maybe that adds a bit to the flooding…but I’m sure that the Skyway has large pumps and pipes for their own drainage system,” he stated. 

Since the highway’s construction, the barangay and its constituents have not yet received the developers’ Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) reports. 

“Maybe their reports are sent to the MMDA, or the DPWH. We think they won’t submit their reports to the barangay, but to the government agencies that they were actively engaging with,” Del Mundo explained. 

Del Mundo said their last consultation with the developers was in 2018, before the highway construction started. 

Meanwhile, requesting for the EIA and Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) of the said project via the Freedom of Information (FOI) website of the Philippine government proves to be futile, with the request being automatically denied. With this latest development, Tatalon residents’ speculations on whether these infrastructure projects have truly generated a great impact on their environment and community remain unanswered. 

Screenshot from FOI website.

And as the Skyway stands directly above the flood-prone communities of G. Araneta, residents like Alice have already become wary of their future.

“Soon it will be the rainy season again. I’m worried about the flooding. I feel that the level of flooding when Carina happened will likely happen again,” Alice ended. 

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