By LITO RULONA
Correspondent
PRESIDENT Duterte has ordered the Mindanao Development Authority (Minda) to look into Monday’s floodings in the city
Abul Khayr Alonto, Minda chairman, told a news conference here on Tuesday said Duterte also directed him to look into how the local government handled the crisis especially on how it carried out rescue operations.
“The floods that happened on Monday brought back the memories of Sendong,” said Alonto even as he revealed that his son was a survivor of the 2011 Typhoon Sendong devastation.
Alonto said he was in the University of Science and Technology of the Philippines (USTP) before the flooding in the afternoon. Initially, he said, the situation looked to him like a problem on sewerage and garbage that have not been given attention by city hall and the Department of Public Works and Highways.
He said such a problem should not be happening in a city which is emerging as the fourth most highly urbanized city in the country.
“The Mindanao Development Authority will now make a proposal that officials from the city down to the barangay levels should have a serious program on disaster response,” he said.
Alonto said local governments should also be strict in the enforcement of laws on the environment “because this kind of disaster is an outcome of how we have destroyed our forests, and the destruction of our environment.”
Alonto said local governments should prioritized projects to improve drainage systems and flood control.
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