San Miguel Corporation (SMC) continues to support the government’s Oplan Kontra-Baha program as its Better Rivers PH initiative reports the removal of more than 330,000 metric tons of silt and waste from the Parañaque river system since September 2024.
The cleanup covers a total of eight kilometers of river channels and forms part of SMC’s ongoing efforts to improve drainage and reduce flooding in southern Metro Manila.
SMC Chairman and CEO Ramon S. Ang said river cleanup crews have been working continuously for the past 16 months, focusing on desilting, clearing, and rehabilitating waterways around the airport and other critical areas of the Parañaque river system.
The initiative is being undertaken in coordination with the City Government of Parañaque under Mayor Edwin Olivarez and aims to improve the outflow of floodwaters from Parañaque to Manila Bay. This is expected to help mitigate flooding at the country’s primary international gateway as well as nearby communities.
The program also supports the national government’s Oplan Kontra-Baha, led by the Department of Public Works and Highways, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, and local government units, together with other government agencies.
Ang said SMC remains committed to helping improve water flow in rivers across southern Metro Manila, from Laguna to Muntinlupa, Las Piñas, and Parañaque, to address long-standing flooding problems. He added that since the launch of Oplan Kontra-Baha in Parañaque last November, steady progress has continued.
At Balihatar–San Dionisio Creek, where the multi-agency initiative was launched, SMC has removed 21,918 tons of silt and waste from a 1.57-kilometer stretch of the waterway. Cleanup operations are continuing downstream toward Parañaque and upstream toward Las Piñas.
Along the main channel of the Parañaque River, SMC’s cleanup operations have reached the Pasay area, with a total of 152,365 tons of silt and waste removed from a 3.65-kilometer section.
SMC is also conducting cleanup operations at the junction of the Don Galo River and the San Dionisio and Villanueva creeks to deepen the channel and increase its water-carrying capacity toward Manila Bay.
These efforts form part of SMC’s wider Better Rivers PH initiative, which has been ongoing for six years and is carried out at no cost to the government or taxpayers.
To date, SMC has removed more than 8.7 million metric tons of silt and waste from major river systems in and around Metro Manila, including the Pasig, Tullahan, and San Juan rivers, river systems across Bulacan and Pampanga, and waterways in Alabang, Laguna, and Navotas.