This much we know. Parts of downtown Cebu City get flooded even with the slightest downpour because they’re low-lying and household waste and structures block, constrict, silt up, and aggrade waterways designed to lead floodwaters out to sea.
But at a forum I got invited to last Aug. 16 at Palm Glass Hotel, an American historian and researcher offered another reason: the area gets flooded because it’s a natural floodplain that we didn’t leave alone despite its vital role in flood protection.
Speaking online, Dr. Michael Cullinane, Associate Director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, presented maps from 1699, 1833, 1840, 1842, and 1873 that showed the area as a small settlement ringed by riachuelos [streams] and pantanos [swamps].
In his early maps, what we now call the Estero de Parian and another place no longer spoken of today—San Bonguillo—were major water systems with bridges. Areas with old names like Panting, Laguna, and Kanipaan, now just segments of what we plainly call ‘downtown’, were natural floodplains of the two water bodies. Tinago, also in his early maps, was an islet. It was surrounded by water.
The later 1800s maps showed that the swamps and canals were systematically filled in to make way for houses and roads, thereby erasing natural catchment areas. If we check more contemporary maps, including those made during the American period, and maps made within the last four to five decades, we know that infrastructure projects—done in the mad dash towards our understanding of development—decimated our natural floodplains entirely.
Estero de Parian is now nothing more than a small waterway alongside continuous roads and urban sprawl. And Tinago? A flood-prone barangay that is now part of the mainland.
Floodplains are critically important. They form adjacent to rivers and streams as a natural result of the movement of water in the main river channel. The water erodes the banks and creates flat, low-lying areas that are designed by nature to catch floodwaters when the river overflows during monsoon. They flood so that other places don’t have to.
Unfortunately, whenever we talk of flooding, we don’t talk about floodplains. Conversations are often on the waterway itself and easement, reducing the discourse to illegal settlers and household waste.
Indeed, floodplains are an altogether more difficult conversation. Floodplains—think of certain parcels of land to the right of the northbound lane of Gen. Maxilom Ave., a floodplain of the Lahug River, as an example— constitute larger swaths of flatlands that have been titled, lawfully occupied, and extensively developed; concrete buildings, paved parking lots, and extensive run-off.
The run-of-the-mill strategy of demolition, disturbance compensation, and relocation of Local Government Units, which could work on illegal settlers with stilt houses built on riverbeds or riverbanks, simply does not work where developed commercial properties are concerned.
In the case of Cebu City’s floodplains in the uptown and downtown areas, where (a) development that emerged from 1983 to 2003 happened without plans for climate resilience, flood mitigation, integration of upland protection, or concerns for the watershed because the Comprehensive Land Use Plan (Clup) that was in place then didn’t require it, and (b) where there was no working Clup to speak of to govern developments that emerged after 2003, talk of restoring floodplains becomes especially moot; unless the city spends billions to expropriate properties wholesale.
On the brighter side, City Ordinance 2784, the Revised Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance of 2025, which Raymond Garcia signed into law on June 30, 2025—his last act of office—ensures that future developments in Cebu City follow a comprehensive plan. The ordinance implements a new Clup for Cebu City that stands until 2033.
Ar. Yumi Espina, the former City Planning and Development Office (CPDO) chief, told me in late April that this new Clup integrates flood control measures directly into zoning and infrastructure planning. He worked on the Clup with the current CPDO chief, Ar. Annie Cuizon.
Drainage corridors and waterways are now part of the zoning framework, he said, meaning developments must account for natural water flow. Moreover, mixed-use zoning now allows for more efficient land use, reducing sprawl and minimizing non-porous surfaces that worsen runoff.
With a new Zoning Ordinance implementing a duly approved land use plan, developers can now be compelled to take cognizance of flood mitigation while still in the planning phase of their development or redevelopment projects.
Mayor Nestor Archival formed a new Zoning Board, with himself as chairman, last week. The new board has yet to meet. We can only hope that this new board, armed with an updated CLUP, implements the plan without allowing for variance or, in the words of one reactant to the Cullinane presentation, bayrance.