TO:
In connection with the recent calamity wrought by Typhoon Didang, I note with regret that due to their faulty construction, railroad tracks and bridges were either destroyed or rendered impassable.  In Bayambang, Pangasinan, for instance, the waters that scoured the dike constructed by the Department of Public Works passed through the much lower railroad tracks which becomes a gap in the dike.  Likewise, the bridges destroyed by the floods were found to have been erected lower than the high-water level of the esteros and waterways in Manila.

The first situation is indicative of utter lack of coordination and cooperation between the department concerned and the Philippines National Railways.  The second, on the other hand makes it imperative that such urgent remedial measures as the raising of the bridges be undertaken so as to prevent them from causing bottlenecks that obstruct the free flow of water.

The Secretary of Public Works, Transportation and Communications and the General Manager of the Philippines National Railways are therefore directed to harness their respective resources with the view to attaining the optimum level of coordination and cooperation in undertaking projects involving mutual efforts by both offices. All corrective measures deemed necessary under the circumstances must be taken and corresponding reports thereon submitted to me immediately.

Done in the City of Manila, this 29th day of May, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and seventy-six.