DAGUPAN CITY - As officials and residents of Pangasinan start focusing their efforts on the rehabilitation of their towns devastated by widespread flooding in the province last week, they are, at the same time, finding who are accountable for the destruction.

Pangasinan officials, a former Court of Appeals associate justice and a group of businessmen have started preparing complaints against the National Power Corp. and the San Roque Multipurpose Project (SRMP) after excess water released from the San Roque Dam in San Manuel town flooded 38 towns and cities in the province.

VILLASIS, PANGASINAN - "This is the first time that something like this happened as far as I can remember. The people were so terrified and they ran away from their homes when they saw the waters rising," Abrenica said when reached by phone Friday.

"In all my years here, I've never seen this happen," said the 56-year-old mayor.

Almost all villages in Pangasinan province were inundated by floodwaters overnight after the San Roque dam released its water reserve swollen by hovering Typhoon Pepeng on Thursday, devouring homes and thoroughfares in a matter of hours.

The NDCC said at least 60 percent of towns in the province was submerged by floodwaters as of Friday morning.

The widespread flooding occurred while the country has yet to bounce back from overwhelming floods that hit Metro Manila and nearby provinces on the last week of September, after Tropical Storm “Ondoy” dumped a month's worth of rains on the capital region.

The flooding prompted a massive rescue operation of the Philippine National Police, the Armed Forces of the Philippines and United States forces as residents were reported trapped on rooftops.

Abrenica said waters started to rise Thursday afternoon, shortly after town officials received advise that San Roque dam on Agno river was about to release excess water. The reservoir spilled its supply just as the National Disaster Coordinating Council reported on the same day that the Agno River had reached "a very critical water level."

"They advised us but the water rose very, very quickly. We already started evacuation yesterday but some residents were hard-headed," Abrenica said in Filipino on Friday.

He said floodwaters reached rooftops by 10 p.m., trapping residents and isolating the town from adjacent villages.

The mayor said some 2,500 residents were evacuated, most of them moved to the town hall.

"San Roque's (dam) strategy was wrong. Their timing is off. They should have gradually released water while Pepeng was still in the area instead of releasing it one time," said Abrenica.

Early Friday morning, the military deployed air and sea assets to search and rescue residents caught in landslides and flooding around Northern Luzon provinces.

The US military also deployed 10 CH-46 Chinook helicopters, 18 combat rubber raiding craft and heavy transport trucks to assist Philippine rescuers in reaching severely affected areas.

NDCC spokesperson Lt. Col. Ernesto Torres admitted that government resources were spread thin because of the back-to-back typhoons and widespread damages around Luzon, adding that rescue, rehabilitation and relief work were going on at the same time.

"Although we conducted pre-emptive measures, like early evacuation and early deployment of rescue units, information dissemination, we were still short in resources because of the widespread effects of the typhoons," Torres said.

"But somehow, the effects of Pepeng were mitigated by our preemptive measures," he added.