PNoy defends anew decision to cancel 2010 Laguna flood control project

President Benigno Aquino III defended his decision to axe the Laguna Lake Rehabilitation project, which aimed to alleviate flooding in Metro Manila by dredging Laguna de Bay.

According to Aquino, the soil that would be removed from Laguna de Bay will only be dumped in a different part of the lake.

"There is an P18.7 billion project and basically it will remove silt from one portion of the lake and move it to another portion of the lake," he said in a report on "24 Oras" on Saturday.



Aquino's statement was in response to a new round of questions over his decision after Tropical Storm Mario battered the country over the last couple of days, leaving at least five dead and 710,000 displaced according to the National Disaster and Risk Reduction Management Council (NDRRMC).

The project was initially approved after silt that makes Laguna Lake shallow was found to cause the rapid overflow of water into low-lying towns around the lake.

But the project, which would have dredged 4.6 million cubic meters of silt from the lake, was canceled in 2010 soon after Aquino took office. — Andrei Medina/JST, GMA News