‘Miracle’ keeps Dagupan church dry amid flooding
DAGUPAN CITY—For Clemente Navarro, gone are the days when, during the monsoon season, he would wear rain boots inside the St. John the Evangelist Cathedral here as he assists the parish priest during Mass every morning.
This was because the church floors swirl with a foot-high floodwater every time heavy rains come during the monsoon cycle and typhoons. Despite this, the daily Mass is held as scheduled.
“Now, I don’t wear rain boots during Mass anymore. The church and the entire compound is free from floods. So while most parts of the city are still flooded, more people are inside the Cathedral to hear Mass,” Navarro said.
In 2025, church authorities closed the parking lot at the compound for several months so workers could install a cistern beneath it.
This week was the trial run for the cathedral’s water impounding technology. Flooding caused by heavy rains and high tide has once again inundated coastal Dagupan but this time, the St. John the Evangelist Cathedral remains completely dry.
Community support
Monsignor Manuel Bravo, the parish priest, said this was no miracle, just an old water impounding technology that works.
“We built a cistern, measuring 9 by 50 meters and a depth of 3 meters, below the church parking spaces where rainwater accumulates. The water is pumped out of the cistern into the drainage system,” Bravo told the Inquirer in a telephone interview.
“In simple terms, instead of allowing the water to accumulate in the yard, you create a pit, a cistern—a large hole that will serve as a catch basin for all the water. From that hole, you install pumps, particularly submersible pumps, which will remove the water or pump it into the drainage system,” Bravo said.
It also helped that the church’s gates were elevated so that flood water from the streets could not enter the compound.
In the past, church flooding had become so severe that the pews, electric wiring and even the sound system ended up damaged.
Bravo said the construction of the pit or sump, with the support of the community, can be described as the real miracle.
“We thought of consulting people who knew what could be done to prevent flooding at the cathedral,” the priest recalled.
“I think I consulted with about 10 engineers, each with different areas of expertise in flood control. And [the dry Cathedral today] is the result of all those consultations. I am grateful because this project appears to be effective,” Bravo said.
Assistance in the form of financial, material and technical expertise poured into the project which Bravo said was “costly because the cistern was large.”
“I was just the steward. I just did what I was supposed to do. The parishioners contributed from time to time through special collections to help complete the project—[also helpful was] the Parish Pastoral Council, the people who talked with the Department of Public Works and Highways officials. Many people helped when they learned about it,” he said.
It was former Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson who explained to church officials the technology used in Bonifacio Global City in Taguig City, which has never experienced flooding, Bravo said.
Singson also sent some of his former staffers to assist in the construction, he said.
Bravo credited “church workers” Stephen Tan and Edwin Dy, who were “generous” with their donations to the project.
Dy’s property in flood-prone Mayombo district, the priest said, does not get flooded as he had built his own sump inside the compound. “[Dy] sealed the property and he was the first to build a sump inside his property and he helped us during the construction,” he said.
“Now, the church is dry and we can even accommodate evacuees, ” Bravo added.
