Flooding: Natural disaster or man-made catastrophe?

The heavy rain fell. The rivers rose. The streets that are so far from the rivers are inundated. And once again, the country is drowned.

Today, not just fortuitous events make our lives miserable, unmitigated flooding does.  Who would ever think that monsoon rains can wreak havoc on our communities? None. Why? Because it can be mitigated through reliable flood control projects and discipline among all of us.  Let’s be clear on these though, the root causes of these problems did not appear overnight but through the years and in different administrations. Notably, credit goes to President Marcos for exposing these anomalies and for other well-meaning politicians and individuals who are supporting and pushing for its intended outcome (accountability). Truth be told, the root cause maybe considered an elephant in the room. Yes, everyone knows they existed but nobody dared to talk about them publicly. 

It is a known fact that politicians wield so much power especially in the countryside.  Most of them are astute businessmen too. They own types of business establishments that heavily deal with the needs of both national and local governments. These are mostly construction related like hardware and sand and gravel. Also, most local government units (LGUs) have heavy equipment so they (politicians) are opening gas stations as well. With the LGUs’ Bids and Awards Committees (BACs) under their total control and co-bidders downright cohorts, they’ll surely win, albeit, under cover of their distant relatives’ or close friends’ names. 

For years we’ve been told that billions were spent on flood control. Dikes, pumping stations, drainage, river dredging, etc. Now, we only see traces of some, the rest are washed out or gone or never built at all. Fortunately for us, nature is now doing the supposed job of the Commission on Audit. That of exposing ghost projects and substandard materials.

Well, a few are already in jail but had left much to be desired. Well, we cannot just keep settling for investigations, blue ribbon hearings, and empty promises while contractors get richer and families get poorer. Accountability without jail time is a joke. Filipinos have been patient. We have mopped, bailed, and rebuilt. Our patience is underwater. Until the perpetrators are all behind bars, the next rain will continue to bring the same thieves to the fore.

More importantly, we have to realize that corruption has a price tag and we are all paying such twice. First, we pay for flood control projects that never worked. Then we pay again when the floods destroy our crops, our roads, our businesses, and our homes. The cost triples as bridges crushed and roads destroyed and supply routes are cut. By design, that is inflation by corruption.

And the damage is not just economic, it is personal. Say, the tricycle driver loses a week’s income and the market vendor throws away rotten stock. Sadly, the family wades through waist-deep water to save what little he owns. In a country where most have no savings, one flood pushes a family back several years. With no less than twenty typhoons a year, Filipinos feel they are running in place while sinking. That’s a no-brainer.

Consequently, there is the slow death of communities who finally give up and abandon their hometowns because flooding is now permanent. There is the rage of knowing that watersheds were destroyed for quarrying by favored permittees and that warnings were ignored because elections mattered more than anything else.

Therefore, we must stop pretending. This is not about the weather. The climate will get worse. Therefore, we shouldn’t call it a natural disaster because in truth and in fact, it is a man-made catastrophe. Signed, approved, and paid for with our taxes. The truth is, God sent the rain but it was our politicians and contractors who sent the flood.

Imperatively, we must change. Enough of listening to the rhetorics that we just have to be resilient. We must treat flood control corruption as murder, since it is. It kills through drowning, through disease, through hunger, and through hopelessness.

Let this be the last rainy season we accept excuses. Let this be the rainy season we demand jail time, real projects, and a full accounting of every centavo our taxes are spent. We must take it to heart that the rain is not the curse, the budget anomaly is. 

Therefore, we must break the flood control walls that exist only in vouchers and kickbacks.