The company said fresh monitoring showed silt and garbage have again piled up, restricting the waterway’s ability to drain into Manila Bay.
“It is not unexpected that silt and garbage have re-accumulated. Heavy rains have brought more erosion, and waste dumping continues. That’s why we really need to go back,” said SMC chair and CEO Ramon S. Ang.
The Tullahan was the pilot site of SMC’s Better Rivers PH program launched in 2020, which by 2022 cleared 1.12 million metric tons of waste from a 10.9-kilometer stretch near the North Luzon Expressway.
Since then, the initiative has removed 8.6 million metric tons of silt and waste from 165 kilometers of waterways across Metro Manila and nearby provinces at no cost to government.
“For five years now, we have been cleaning rivers because flooding disrupts lives and the economy,” Ang said.
“This is our way of contributing to long-term solutions that affect millions of Filipinos,” he added.
Local governments are also stepping in, with Quezon City signing a pact with SMC to clear easements and restore the river’s natural width.
Mayors of Valenzuela and Navotas have asked the conglomerate to extend the work to their jurisdictions, while cleanup has already started at the river’s mouth in Manila Bay.
—Edited by Miguel R. Camus
