UNLESS somehow it goes the way of other previous posturings against the dam management and the National Power Corporation over the same issue, the Sangguniang Panlungsod of Dagupan might yet finally exact redress from concerned dam officials for the seasonal floods that leave heavy damages on the plains of Pangasinan, to include the city.

The possibility of a class suit to be filed by the city government loomed larger than ever before after a ranking official of the San Roque Multi-purpose Project (SRMP), Ramon Verza, operations officer, admitted that some “20 per cent” of water released thru the spillways of the San Roque dam finds its way to Dagupan and causes floods.

“Twenty percent lang po ang nanggagaling sa san Roque,” Verza remarked almost innocently to the city council during a committee hearing presided over by Councilor Vladimir Mata.

It was the first ever admission of any significant degree ever made by dam authorities on the matter of flooding generally blamed by cityfolk to the release of dam waters upstream. In the past, SRMP officials would insist that water from the dam, once released, follows the path of the Agno River out to the China Sea, a direction that is far from the areas of Dagupan and its neighboring towns, they claim.

Thus, they told every public or committee hearings and fact-finding bodies in the past, their dam water could not have been contributing to Dagupan floodings.

Verza, citing statistics and calculations from his office, claimed that the 20 per cent water that reaches Dagupan is the excess of the water being released downstream of the Agno river when the impounded water nears critical level.

Hearing Verza’s testimony, Councilor Farah Decano, said the City Legal Office can possibly build a case against the San Roque dam to pursue the city’s claim for damages arising from flood.

Verza however quickly clarified that SRMP releases water from its gates only on orders of Napocor.

The committee hearing was called in anticipation of the onset of La Nina, the weather phenomenon that causes excessive rains, by the middle part of this year. It sought to gather useful data from concerned agencies to better prepare for emergencies including floods aggravated by dam water releases.