Pasig River Commission lending expertise to rehabilitate Dagupan rivers

• Source: http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?nid=8&rid=949833
• Thursday, December 22, 2016

(PNA), LAP/LVM/LVMICUA/RMA

DAGUPAN CITY (PNA) -- Mayor Belen Fernandez said she will issue an executive order shortly creating a commission that will oversee the rehabilitation of all the rivers here, clear the esteros, relocate the informal settlers and provide easement areas along river banks where people can walk and enjoy the sights.

Fernandez said this body will be similar to the Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission (PRRC) whose officials led by Executive Director Ramil Tan who she invited to come to Dagupan on Dec. 20 to see the situation of the city rivers and recommend ways on how to rehabilitate and make them more sustainable.

The proposed Dagupan City River Rehabilitation Commission (DCRRC) will be made up of different department heads with a focal person to be designated in charge, but who must be resourceful and knows where he will get the funds.

Like the PRRC, the proposed body may seek international grants to be used by it in rehabilitating the city's rivers and in providing alternative livelihood to the fishermen and their families.

Fernandez was impressed with what the PRRC is doing in Metro Manila, like the clearing of esteros and creeks that were formerly swarming with garbage, and the recovery of easement areas beside rivers that used to be occupied by informal settlers, where people and even students can walk in going to work and to their schools.

She said that based on the presentation of PRRC executive director Tan, the commission had been working on many projects through a system he called power convergence where various agencies of the government and stakeholders are freely lending their helping hand for a common objective.

He initially recommended the putting up of a more than one-kilometer baywalk from the Star Plaza Hotel to the front of the National Bureau of Investigation building facing the Calmay River.

Pasig River rehabilitation is an original idea of Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Gina Lopez when she was yet in the private sector, although the commission was created through an executive order issued in 2000 by then President Joseph Estrada.

"Actually, we've been doing what the PRRC is already doing like the preparation of a resettlement site where some 400 families living in danger zones like bank of rivers and seashore will be moved soon.

The lot which is now being backfilled is owned by the city with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) screening the beneficiaries.

The National Housing Authority (NHA) was also tapped to build the low-cost housing project for the beneficiaries.

The mayor said the city government put up Island Tours that uses three customized flat boats donated by different private companies as part of their corporate social responsibilities (CSR).

On the other hand, the ongoing drilling of the city rivers is being done, she said, with the help of three dredging machines deployed to Dagupan by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

As to fish pens in the water, Fernandez announced that for the past three years, she had removed 690 of these structures. The only remaining fish pens in the city are those being claimed by their owners as located on their titled lands eroded into the river.

The city already sent notices to owners of these structures but as part of due process, they will still make a consultation with them, the mayor said.

Fernandez believes that the river rehabilitation in Dagupan could be finished in five years with all stakeholders lending their hand to this project.