Thirty years after Arnedo Dike was constructed, the Pampanga River was gouged deeper by rampaging current from denuded mountains. The riverbanks were continuously eroded leaving unstable cliffs along many areas. The volume of rushing floodwater became so enormous that even a deeper Pampanga River could no longer contain it. Arnedo Dike was no longer enough.

A bigger dike had to be constructed – the Arayat-Apalit Setback Levee. The new dike, popularly known as Control, was finished during the time of President Marcos. It was said that people in Candaba were violently against it and that the government had to send troops to guard its final construction.

Candabeños had all the reason to protest. The Control dike was designed to protect the nearby towns northward and in the process condemning Candaba’s Poblacion, together with some portions of the towns of San Luis and San Simon, to the resulting flood basin south of the Control dike. That flood basin is home to some 17,000 families at present.

Candabeños braving turbulent current.

When the record flood came late August this year Arnedo Dike was no longer in the people’s minds except perhaps in the minds of those who still depended on it to protect their rich agricultural land and used it as access road.

The forgotten Arnedo Dike hit the big news nationwide when Mayor Jerry Pelayo called the attention of authorities and the public about it just before typhoon Marce made a landfall. The strong current of the Pampanga River was threatening to breach the Arnedo Dike at a critical turn at Barangay Mandasig in Candaba.

If the dike were breached at that point, not only Barangay Mandasig would be devastated by rushing floodwater but strong pressure would be unleashed on the Control dike and threaten nearby towns as well.

Putting up the reinforcement designed by Mayor Pelayo.

Radio and television carried the call for help to prevent the breaching of the Arnedo Dike. The DPWH was early at the site but could not do anything but to make the assurance for the mobilization of the needed equipment and materials in ten days.

But things could not wait. Typhoon Marce was to make a landfall in two days and the current in the river was getting stronger and the water level was fast rising.

Mayor Pelayo mobilized his constituents and started sandbagging the eroding dike. Donations of empty sacks from concerned persons and establishments came one after the other. So did donations of sand.

Tightening the ropes.

Bamboos and cut trees were used to reinforce the sandbags. Ropes and steel bars held the reinforcements together. More than 300 people from different barangays braved the heavy rain and turbulent water to help in the sandbagging. They were joined by members of the Army engineering brigade who brought a payloader to carry and dump sandbags.

Using iron bars to add strength to the reinforcement.

When the typhoon came and the river overflowed its banks more than 35,000 sandbags were in place. TV crews held a vigil over the threatened dike expecting it to burst at any moment. They never got their scoop of a disaster but Arnedo Dike was live on national TV for several days. Radio stations on the other hand kept a running account of what was being done to save the dike. It was one finest hour of the people of Candaba.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo took notice and convened a previously cancelled crisis meeting for Central Luzon inside the former Clark Air Base. Candaba was one of her main concerns among others.

It was during that meeting that the President showed dismay over the slow response that concerned agencies like the DPWH showed to the ongoing calamity. In Candaba it was just sand that was being asked for and they were not able to deliver any on time. The nearby town of Mexico was quicker and its mayor promptly dispatched several trucks of sand to its neighbour. That sand was just enough to last for the entire period of the flood.

What about the DPWH? They were sulking over their embarrassment they suffered in front of the President when Mayor Pelayo denied Candaba ever received deliveries of sand from them during the critical hours of the crisis as they wanted to claim.

35,000 sandbags in two days.

Do you think the DPWH learned their lesson for good after that?

Soon the President announced that some funds will be released for the rehabilitation of the Arnedo Dike. Actually P15 Million was made available. The DPWH was quick to the draw. Even before they have consulted with concerned mayors they already came up with plans on how to use that money. That led to the tearing of documents by Mayor Pelayo during a supposedly consultative meeting that hit the front page of a local paper.

Pampanga River overflows.

Mayor Pelayo had all the reasons to blow his top. For the last nine years the DPWH had, for at least three times, been constructing revetment on that eroding portion of the Arnedo Dike that only collapsed whenever the strong current came. No less than P27 Million was lost to that practice.

The people of Candaba know and believe that there is an alternative course of action that could be more effective and could even help the government maximize its limited resources.

Many portions of the Arnedo Dike have been lost forever. The stretches that remain valuable to the people are those that still protect their farmlands and places of abode. That critical portion of the dike at Barangay Mandasig protects a critical junction of the Control dike and the main road leading to the Poblacion from other towns of Pampanga.

It is the critical turn of the Pampanga River where the speeding current is catapulted into churning whirlpools by a protruding sand deposit on the opposite bank that are so strong that they weaken the foundation of the Arnedo Dike and peel off any revetment that is placed there.

A long term solution to this was actually thought out a long time ago and the government already spent a lot of money on it, paying for land and constructing a diversion bridge. Mayor Pelayo and the people of Candaba believe it remains the best option until now.

Engineers have long proposed the construction of a cut-off channel that would ease out the pressure on that particular curve and even lessen the damaging current that frequently rushes through the Poblacion. Only the mismanagement of the allocated funds and the consequent loss of interest of succeeding government officials stopped the work on the project. The collapse of the diversion bridge sealed its fate.

Meanwhile, the people of Candaba endured one flood after another. Farmers simply replanted after every crop devastation. Like the Arnedo Dike they persisted on their own in being essential aspects of Candaba’s life. They never got enough attention and support. The little assistance that was given mostly went to the wrong pockets. Their resiliency over time is a great feat by itself. But for how long can they survive amidst apathy and corruption?

The dike loses another 3 meters despite DPWH.

Barely two months after the record flood completely receded this year, work by the DPWH started on the Arnedo Dike at Barangay Mandasig. A number of metal sheet piles were driven into the river bank at the sandbagged portion of the dike. They were so short a normal high level of the river drowned them completely. Sand was also dumped on top of the dike to make it look new.

Collapsing revetment.

As every Candabeño expected, everything was washed out when the rain and the floodwater came during typhoons Winnie and Yoyong. The dike even looked worse losing some three meters in width in some portions. Water started to seep through the remaining revetment protecting the main road. And that, if I am not mistaken, was another P5 Million of government limited resources wasted in so short a time.