San Miguel Corporation (SMC) has successfully delivered on its promise to clean up Laguna’s Biñan River in less than a year, freeing up the clogged waterway of nearly 88,000 tons of silt and solid waste that had long worsened flooding in the city of Biñan.
Completing the massive task in less than seven months, SMC’s Better Rivers PH initiative covered a 3.2-kilometer stretch of the river from the mouth of Laguna Lake near Barangay Dela Paz to downtown Barangay Poblacion — where hundreds of families had long been tormented by lingering floodwaters during the typhoon season.
“Dati po matagal bago humupa ang baha. Nitong Pasko (December 2024), may malakas na ulan pero hindi na umakyat ang tubig dito. Yung ilang lugar na binaha, mabilis nang bumababa ang tubig,” recalled Herminigildo Aguilar, 64, a councilman or kagawad in Barangay Poblacion. “Maluwag na ang ilog, mas mabilis nang umaagos ang tubig.”
[Floodwater used to linger for days. But after a heavy downpour last Christmas, water from the river did not swell into the coastal village and floodwater from the rain drained faster to the river.]
Since 2020, SMC’s Better Rivers PH program has been moving from one river system to another, restoring the natural depth and breadth of river channels in Metro Manila and Luzon at zero-cost to government. By clearing silt and garbage, the initiative has helped mitigate flooding, ease water flow, and improve water quality.
This voluntary effort by SMC reached Biñan River in August last year through close coordination with Mayor Walfredo “Arman” Dimaguila, Jr., who also identified an area in Barangay Malaban as the LGU’s collection point for the extracted wastes and silt from the river.
Jeorge Total, 49, SMC’s team leader for the Biñan river cleanup, said four teams equipped with backhoes and barges were deployed to do the job. “Grabe ang basura nung dumating kami dito. Nagpulo-pulo na. Hindi kami makakain sa tabi kasi talagang mabaho. Ngayon wala ka nang maamoy,” Total said.
[When we arrived, the garbage was unimaginable – mounds of them above water. We could not eat our meals because of the stink. Now, you won’t smell anything.]
A challenge for the cleanup crews were narrow sections of the river in the city proper where barges carrying the backhoes could not maneuver, so cranes had to make a tight entry through the city to reach the riverbanks, Total said.
Upon completion last February 28, the SMC initiative removed a total of 87,899 tons of silt and garbage from the Biñan River through a winding stretch of 3.2 km. The largest volume removed was at the mouth of the river in Laguna Lake, where the natural river channel was practically blocked going out to the lake.
“I am very happy that our river cleanup initiative marked another achievement in Laguna, through the help and cooperation of the local government and our other partners,” said SMC Chairman and CEO Ramon S. Ang.
“I ask all our kababayans to please help take care of our rivers because they are critical to our health and the health of our environment, economy, and communities. The job of making our rivers better is not just the government’s or the private sector’s responsibility. What happens to our rivers affects us all, so we all have a role to play,” he said.
Before reaching Biñan, the Luzon-wide program’s first stop in Laguna was at San Isidro River in San Pedro. The cleanup began August 2023 and was concluded a year later, after the extraction of 417,044 tons of silt and waste from a 5.3-kilometer stretch of the river.
As a result, communities near San Isidro River were spared from severe flooding episodes brought about by consecutive typhoons late last year, including Typhoon Kristine. SMC’s river cleanup is now back in San Pedro, Laguna to clean up its Tunasan and Landayan Rivers.
As with its previous river cleanup operations, SMC conducted aerial, topographic and bathymetric surveys of the rivers, before plotting their course of action. This ensured prioritization of critical areas and an environmentally sound extraction of waste and silt — something SMC applies in every river rehabilitation effort.
Overall, Better Rivers PH has covered a total of 157.29 km of waterways, removing a total of 8,248,254 metric tons of silt and solid waste as of March 12, 2025.
This includes 1.12 tons from 10.9 km of Tullahan River; 1.18 tons from 26 km of Pasig River; 322,739 tons from 7.61 km of San Juan River; 694,372 tons from 26.3 km of Pampanga River; and 4.13 tons from 74.75 km of the Bulacan River System.
Meanwhile, its ongoing efforts to rehabilitate rivers in Paranaque City and clear flood drains around the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) have so far covered 2.58 km and removed 129,862 tons of silt and solid waste.
Ang stressed that all these efforts would be for naught if coastal communities and other stakeholders do not refrain from throwing their trash into the rivers and on roads where they are washed away to the storm drains leading to the creeks and rivers. “Hopefully, we Filipinos adhere to strict rules in the disposal of our garbage. Let us help one another so that our trash no longer ends up in our rivers.”
