SAN MANUEL, Pangasinan — Senator Loren Legarda conducted here Wednesday an on-site public hearing and inspection of the San Roque Dam, whose release of water during storms “Ondoy” and “Pepeng” had been blamed by local officials for the floods that devastated the province.

Legarda, chairman of the Senate Committee on Climate Change, said the hearings being conducted by her committee would help set directions for the adaptation of climate change mitigation measures, as well as the effective reduction of disaster risks at all levels of society and government.

Those who attended the hearing were dam officials, provincial and municipal officials, congressmen from Pangasinan and representatives of various concerned national government agencies.

The hearing was the eighth conducted by Legarda's committee, during which the Senate body also gave due recognition to individuals who have shown “extraordinary courage, selfless and concern for others in the face of overwhelming odds during the impact of typhoon Pepeng.”

“In adversity, the worst and best of us always come out. Let us learn from the worst – the reason for this public hearing. And let us cherish the best – recognize the people who emerged as heroes in the era of climate change,” Legarda stressed.

“We had exhaustive discussions on the protocol of water releases from dams, especially that of San Roque, at the Senate last October. It came out that the present protocol, that is mainly based on historical experience, has not been updated for years,” Legarda declared.

“That’s why the Committee has ordered the NAPOCOR (National Power Corporation) and the rest of the dam operators to revise their protocol and ensure that extreme weather events brought by climate change are taken into consideration in the process. We would like to hear from our resource speakers recent developments on this matter,” Legarda said.