ROSALES, Pangasinan, Philippines—When SM Prime Holdings president Hans Sy went around SM City Rosales after flood water receded here in October last year, he was amazed by the massive damage, says Danny Chavez, SM assistant vice president for operations.

“This will take a lot of time to repair,” Chavez quotes Sy as telling worried employees who asked him how long it would take to restore the two-story structure along the national Highway in Carmen East, one of the worst-hit villages.

Chavez says most employees came from the towns badly hit by the October 8 and 9 massive flooding. Their parents make a living out of agriculture and whose livelihood was disrupted by the calamity.

“With SM and other business establishments in the area closed, around 2,000 SM employees will be out of work for months, or until the businesses recovered,” Chavez says.

Sy promised to fast-track the mall’s restoration. He made good on his promise. After only 49 days, the mall reopened.

Since SM had business-disruption insurance, Sy says the firm was not affected by the disaster. But SM officials realized the impact of the mall’s closure on workers.

Mud and debris

The mall had to be scraped off a foot-deep mud and debris before reconstruction started, but this went fast because equipment being used in the construction of SM City Tarlac were sent to Rosales, Chavez says.

SM City-Rosales was barely on its sixth month of operation when it was hit by floods. Chavez says after a year, SM City Rosales has bounced back with 97 percent of store spaces filled up. Mall traffic has also increased from a daily average of 20,000 to 30,000.

He says only two of the 102 tenants did not return, showing the confidence of businessmen in the Rosales market.

As the flood raged on October 9, 2009, Chavez says Sy arrived aboard a helicopter and brought 500 bags of food for about 1,000 employees, shoppers and commuters stranded in the second floor of the mall.

Not enough

“We let them eat whatever food there was in the snack bar and snack exchange stores, but these were not enough, so Mr. Sy came and brought groceries for them,” Chavez says.

Mayor Ricardo Revita says the town has recovered from the devastation with its annual income increasing to P98.9 million in 2009 from the 2008 income of P83.1 million. “The key lies in the positive outlook local leaders and residents have for the future,” he says. He adds local businesses followed SM’s lead and started resuming operations.

In two to three years, the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEx), which would extend the North Luzon Expressway (NLEx) to La Union, would open an exit in Barangay Carmen and spur business activities here, he says.

“With the influx of people, more enterprises will arrive and time will come that Rosales will get busy,” says Revita. Equally secure in the future of the town is Remedios Tira, 42, owner of the Kubo Lites Resto Bar along the national highway in Carmen. “We can’t leave because the business is here, and this is where many people are,” she says.