By Danny O Sagun

Dagupan City (11 November) -- The San Roque multi-purpose dam can already meet all its requirements for the year when the water level reaches 280 meters above sea level (masl) during the rainy season, an official of the National Power Corporation disclosed Tuesday.

Guesting at the weekly Pantongtongan Tayo radio program of the Philippine Information Agency over Radyo ng Bayan-DZMQ, flood forecasting and warning division chief Virgilio Garcia said the waters stored at the dam at that level are enough to generate power and to serve the irrigation needs of Pangasinan farmers.

Asked why engineer Alexander Palada, who used to head the division, waited until the water level reached the 286 masl mark to start releasing excess waters instead of the 280 spilling level, Garcia said his predecessor apparently thought that Typhoon Pepeng would not be dumping that huge volume of rains anymore since the typhoon was forecast to be exiting out of the country then.

"Signal number one na kasi non at sinabi ng Pagasa na palabas na si Pepeng. Kaya pala nagbalik sya at nagdala ng matinding ulan," he said. The typhoon made landfall at least three times before it finally headed towards the North, a typhoon behavior recorded for the first time in the country.

He said that the waters beyond the 280 mark would have been saved for irrigation if the typhoon did not act that way and exited after its first landfall.

Garcia also said that Palada did not like to release excess waters that time since there was already flooding in some areas even before the dam opened its gates. Releasing excess waters would have aggravated the situation downstream, he said.

But Palada, who asked for relief after the big flood, apparently erred in his calculation with Pepeng dumping more rains on October 8, thus prompting him to open the huge six gates of the dam. The resulting destruction of dikes along the Agno river as well as other infrastructures and the worst flooding seen in central Pangasinan since 1972 angered most Pangasinenses who joined the call for the decommissioning of the dam.

Also asked if his decision was the same as that of his predecessor, Garcia said that while it was indeed a very difficult decision to make, he would base his move on the situation at hand. "Kung tama yong forecast, bakit maghihintay ka pa… actually you don't have to wait for the 280 level kung talagang kailangan nang mag-release, kahit pakonti-konti," he said.

The minimum water level at the dam is 225 masl for it to generate power, he said. The dam, as mandated, needs to generate at least 95 megawatts for eight hours. The so-called secondary power produced beyond that mandate would be "good for government" since it is cheaper, he explained.

He belied claims that the dam operator if at all possible does not want to release any waters so that it can produce more power. "Wala na silang ganansya dyan sa lampas 280," he said as he also denied an allegation that his office is influenced by the management of the San Roque Power Corporation on the issue of releasing excess waters.

The government is bound to pay the power producer if the dam fails to generate 95 megawatts because of low water level.