President Marcos said the government will have to do something about the siltation in the river systems of Ilocos Norte as he concluded that it was among the culprits of the damaged dikes in the province due to typhoon Julian.
In a situation briefing on the impacts of the typhoon that has battered Luzon, Marcos cited the bad condition of riverbeds in the province causing the rivers to overflow, damaging dikes and other river protection infrastructure.
"That is really the thing ‘no. That is the conclusion we all came to, because, ang gulat ko noong lumilipad kami, grabe na pala ang siltation dito (I was shocked to see the worsening siltation when we were conducting an aerial inspection)," Marcos said in a situation briefing in Laoag City, Ilocos Norte on Friday, Oct. 4.
"We have to do something, we will figure something out, I will talk to whoever we can talk to, who can help us," he said.
The President further lamented that he has never seen the province's riverbed that shallow, tagging it as the province's "main problem" now.
"I don’t remember the rivers being wallowed before. I’ve never seen them this shallow before and all the time that I spent here in Ilocos. And they have been silted for a long time, may puno na, e. So, hindi talaga na-dredge," he said.
"I think that is the main problem that we are facing. It’s the siltation and that is what is causing all of these damages that we are seeing. That’s the root, I think that’s the root problem, that is the one that we have to attend to," he added.
Ilocos Norte Governor Matthew Manotoc said "we have to start and make progress" to resolve the siltation problems in the province.
"The infrastructure, long term of course needs to be fixed and as Mr. President mentioned earlier in the chopper, we really need to take a hard look at the siltation in our river systems. Of course, it’s difficult with the scale of the siltation but slowly but surely, in President Marcos Jr.’s word, we have to start and make progress," Manotoc said.
Assist typhoon-hit farmers
Marcos directed the Department of Agriculture (DA) to assist farmers affected by typhoon Julian in the province, noting that the typhoon came as the harvest season nears.
“We’ll have to assist our farmers, nawala yung planting season nila. They lost one planting season,” Marcos told DA Secretary Francisco Tiu-Laurel.
According to Laurel, 15,000 tons of crops were destroyed by the storm, stressing the need to “replant as soon as possible."
Laurel said they have carried out appropriate interventions that are available for distribution to affected farmers, which include the P164.27 million worth of agricultural inputs such as rice, corn, and vegetable seeds from DA regional field offices in Ilocos Region, Cordillera Administrative Region, and Central Luzon.