MANILA - President Arroyo has ordered officials of San Roque Dam to explain the "untimely" water releases that caused massive flooding in Pangasinan and nearby provinces, according to Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita.

"The instruction was given yesterday to the manager of San Roque Dam to review what had been brought out as a complaint because of the untimeliness of the release of the water. Some local executives were complaining that there was not enough time to be able to inform the people. " Ermita told reporters at the sidelines of the budget hearing on the Office of the President.

"There was specific instruction for that particular manager of San Roque dam to find out exactly what happened," Ermita added.

Provincial officials of Pangasinan and other concerned groups are mulling the filing of charges against the administrators and operators of the San Roque Dam for releasing water at the height of tropical depression "Pepeng" over a week ago.

Pangasinan Gov. Amado Espino said water from the dam caused massive flooding and destruction of property and crops in 38 towns and cities in the province.

Some local officials also questioned the supposed lack of advance notice from the San Roque Multipurpose Project (SRMP) about the release of water from the dam.

Congressional probe

Pangasinan Rep. Mark Cojuangco, in a privilege speech on Tuesday, also called for a congressional inquiry into San Roque Dam's water releases.

“Release of water by dams per se is not a bad thing. However, when the release of water is uncontrolled, it resulted to dikes being breached, the devastation it caused was tremendous,” Cojuangco said in his speech.

Nevertheless, Ermita warned against "knee-jerk" reactions against the operations of the San Roque Dam.

"We will look into the bottom of it so it won't be repeated. Imagine, someone even said we should close the San Roque Dam. Yung mga knee-jerk reaction na ganyan, tingnan muna natin ang effect and let's do something to prevent it from happening in the future," Ermita said.