On Monday, Aug. 3, 2026, Cebu City Mayor Nestor Archival announced plans to acquire a one-hectare property in the Tisa-Labangon area this year to serve as a floodwater reservoir.
Heavy rains on July 30, 2026, caused floodwaters to rise three to six feet in Sitio Tambisan, Barangay Tisa, submerging residential houses and prompting Mayor Archival to encourage local state of calamity declarations.
City officials attributed persistent flooding to physical bottlenecks that narrowed natural water channels from six to 10 feet down to about three feet, alongside unchecked upland rainwater runoff.
FOLLOWING widespread flooding across the city, the Cebu City Government plans to acquire a one-hectare property in the Tisa-Labangon area this year to serve as a floodwater reservoir, while reviewing its drainage master plan and enforcing stricter runoff controls on upland developments.
Mayor Nestor Archival announced the measures on Monday, Aug. 3, 2026, saying the recent inundation exposed long-standing structural gaps in the city’s drainage system that require both immediate relief and long-term planning.
Limits of existing flood controls
The announcement comes amid growing scrutiny over the effectiveness of current flood management infrastructure. Cebu City currently has 104 flood-control projects, of which roughly 70 percent have been completed. These completed structures span major rivers — including the Butuanon, Lahug, Guadalupe, Kinalumsan and Mananga — as well as drainage networks across various urban barangays, such as Capitol Site, Luz, Sambag I and Tinago.
Despite the completion of these major works, heavy rains continue to submerge surrounding neighborhoods, leading city officials to acknowledge that downstream structures alone are insufficient.
“If you ask me whether they helped, maybe they did, but only to a small extent,” Archival said.
Narrowed channels and upland runoff
City officials attribute the persistent flooding to two main drivers: severe physical bottlenecks in urban waterways and unchecked rainwater runoff from mountain developments.
Over time, natural water channels originally six to 10 feet wide have narrowed to about three feet due to illegal encroachments and structural obstructions. This dramatic reduction in channel capacity prevents stormwater from draining efficiently during intense rainfall events. At the same time, rapid urbanization and land-use changes in the city’s upland areas have reduced the terrain’s natural capacity to absorb rainwater, sending large volumes of runoff pouring into low-lying communities.
To intercept stormwater before it reaches populated neighborhoods, the City is prioritizing the acquisition of the one-hectare Tisa-Labangon site.
“The fastest solution we see is to acquire that property and convert it into a reservoir where excess rainwater can be collected instead of flowing directly to low-lying communities,” Archival said.
Beyond acting as a catchment basin to collect rainwater runoff, the proposed site may also be developed into a localized waste-processing facility for nearby barangays, including Guadalupe, Banawa, Labangon and Tisa.
Severe impacts on local communities
The urgency for upstream containment was highlighted during heavy rains on July 30, 2026, which struck Barangays Tisa and Labangon particularly hard. In Sitio Tambisan, Barangay Tisa, floodwaters rose as high as three to six feet, submerging residential houses.
To speed up relief efforts, Archival encouraged both Tisa and Labangon to declare a state of calamity. Such a declaration allows local barangay officials to immediately access emergency funds and provide direct assistance to affected residents.
Clogged waterways and maintenance operations
Post-flood inspections revealed that city waterways were further compromised by heavy accumulations of garbage, which prevented floodwaters from flowing freely. In response, around 400 personnel from city departments, barangays and volunteer groups initiated emergency declogging operations in the Tisa-Labangon area and conducted desilting at the mouth of the Kinalumsan River.
“We found that the water was no longer flowing because garbage had completely clogged the waterways. After removing the debris, the water immediately started flowing again,” Archival said.
These emergency cleanup efforts build on broader maintenance data from the Cebu City Department of Engineering and Public Works. As of July 8, the department had received 916 declogging requests, completing 787 — or 85.9 percent — with 47 ongoing and 82 scheduled. These operations cleared 34,922 meters of canals and removed 5,680.7 cubic meters of silt and debris.
The City’s dredging program has also covered 19 priority river sites, hauling an estimated 3,198 cubic meters of material. Five of these sites have been completed, six are ongoing and seven are scheduled. Manual and mechanical cleanups also continue along major waterways — including the Butuanon, Guadalupe, Lahug, Mahiga, Kinalumsan, Tejero and Manalili rivers — and around key bridges such as Zulueta and T. Padilla to clear silt, driftwood and debris.
Developer compliance and master plan update
As part of its long-term strategy, the City is turning its attention to real estate developers and outdated planning models. Mayor Archival directed the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and the City Engineering Office to re-evaluate local drainage conditions and assess whether nearby residential developments have intensified downstream flooding.
A newly established multi-agency task force will inspect mountain developments to verify compliance with environmental standards, evaluate runoff management, and check waste disposal practices. Developers operating without adequate catchment facilities may be mandated to construct them.
“If the engineering assessment shows that additional catchment facilities are necessary, we will require the developers to comply because runoff from upland developments affects communities downstream,” Archival said.
The Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office has also been tasked with reviewing the DPWH’s 2017 Drainage Master Plan. City officials noted that rapid urbanization, shifting land use and increasingly intense rainfall patterns have rendered the assumptions in the 2017 plan outdated, requiring updated strategies for future flood mitigation.
While structural updates and regulatory enforcement proceed, city leadership emphasized that public cooperation in waste management remains essential to preventing future urban flooding.
“We can clean the rivers, but if garbage continues to be thrown into waterways, the flooding will keep happening. This requires cooperation from everyone,” Archival said. / CAV