InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5
MANILA, Philippines - President Benigno Aquino III said Sunday the government's flood control masterplan will be preparing for disasters worse than typhoon Ondoy in 2009.
Visiting the Kasiglahan elementary school in Montalban that has been converted into a temporary evacuation site on Sunday, Aquino appealed to the people to cooperate by voluntarily relocating to areas that are not danger-prone.
"We are preparing for disasters of the same magnitude as Ondoy, or even worse than Ondoy," Aquino said.
"But if the disaster is double that of Ondoy, we should be praying hard," he said, adding that the government is more prepared now than when the country was battered by typhoon Ondoy on September 26, 2009.
Aquino and his party first visited an evacuation center in Mabitac, Laguna before he went to Montalban.
He was accompanied by Public Works chief Rogelio Singson, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority director general Joel Villanueva, Aurora Rep. Sonny Angara, Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman and Presidential Communications Development chief Ramon Carandang.
Aquino appealed to residents living near Laguna Lake to transfer to safer areas to avoid being inundated by floodwaters.
"Let us not place ourselves in danger," the President said.
The flood control masterplan includes a 100-km ring dike around Laguna Lake.
An eight-kilometer dike costing P2.2 billion will also be built around Meycauayan River to address flood problems in the Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas and Valenzuela areas.
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