Here we go again. The rains fall, the streets flood, traffic grinds to a halt. And Filipinos – soaked, stranded and fuming – start pointing fingers at the culprits. It’s the mayor’s fault, the inept local government units (LGUs) in city halls of Metro Manila. Possibly, perhaps. But the flood control program is under the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH). Isn’t the dredging of esteros one of the mandates of the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA)?
But wait, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and like-minded people have surrendered already to the climate change phenomenon that supposedly ushered in the so-called “new normal” all over the world. In our case here in the Philippines, we are experiencing the El Niño and La Niña phenomena, or the prolonged dry and wet seasons, respectively.
In fact, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) declared the official onset of La Niña in our country starting last June. Since then, three successive typhoons – Crising, Dante and Emong – combined with the habagat or monsoon rains, brought severe flooding and landslides in Metro Manila and other parts of the country.
Unfortunately, an average of 20 typhoons visit the Philippines each year. Over the weekend, our PAGASA weather forecasters projected 17 more typhoons may visit the country starting this month until January 2026. So what are we all doing? Just bracing for more typhoons the rest of the year?
Sadly, scores of people have perished and drowned in floodwaters that get deeper, deeper and are now taking longer than usual to subside. Then maybe, they now point to God Almighty as being behind it, with the biblical Noah’s Ark that survived the great flood as best evidence. Not being blasphemous, this might best describe the sentiments of many Filipinos.
No less than PBBM himself echoed his extreme displeasure when again many Filipino lives were lost as well as agricultural crops, houses and other properties – both public and private – were destroyed. This vicious cycle of finger-pointing must stop, right here, right now.
This is supposed to be the message of a stern-faced PBBM when he delivered his fourth State of the Nation Address (SONA) at the opening of the 20th Congress last July 28. “So that this will not happen again,” PBBM announced in his SONA his directives to the DPWH to “immediately submit to me a list of all flood control projects from every region that were started or completed in the last three years.”
The President vowed to publish this list to include all those involved in the kickbacks and other hanky-panky deals. “At the same time, there will be an audit and performance review regarding these projects to check and make sure and to know how your money was spent,” PBBM vowed in his SONA.
Let’s stop the blame game for once and face the cold, wet truth: Metro Manila is built to flood. And we’ve spent decades making it worse.
First, a geography lesson that urban planners seem to conveniently forget: Metro Manila is the country’s largest floodplain. It sits low, like a bowl. Surround it with the Pasig-Marikina River system, Manila Bay on one side and Laguna de Bay on the other. And what do we Metro Manila residents get? A dose of cities that hold water and can’t let it go.
And even if floodwaters wanted to escape, where would they flow? Our rivers and esteros are clogged with plastic, styrofoam, broken appliances and every imaginable form of urban waste. It’s not just a drainage issue. It’s a whole reflection of how broken our relationship with our environment is through these years.
Still want someone to blame? Blame decades of unchecked urban sprawl. Since the 1970s, once forests, wetlands and open grounds were paved in favor of concrete jungles. What used to absorb rainwater now reflects it, sending floodwaters straight into homes, roads and schools. Unmindful about urban planning, these concrete builders erased swamps and put up condos.
And as if that’s not bad enough, Metro Manila is literally sinking, up to 40 millimeters a year. This is according to international environmental experts who did this study. Our land is going down even as sea levels rise. Blame it on groundwater extraction, overbuilding and bad zoning laws passed to benefit the powerful, not protect the people. Don’t we have the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to precisely protect God’s gifts of nature?
Now let’s talk climate. The 2017 Hu et al. study confirmed what many already feel in their bones: typhoons are getting stronger, rainfall is getting more intense and the system we have, that is if we have one, is outdated and overwhelmed. Built for the Manila of yesterday, not for the mega-city we have today.
And here’s something even more frustrating: water sometimes flows the wrong way. Laguna de Bay, instead of absorbing floods, can actually push water back into the city during high tide or heavy rain. Yes, backflow. While that’s happening, government agencies – DPWH, MMDA, DENR, LGUs – each is doing their own thing, barely coordinating. One builds, another demolishes. One dredges, another reclaims. Meanwhile, the water rises – and so does public anger.
So what’s the way forward? Integrated flood management. Not another one-off floodway. Not another trip abroad to attend climate change conferences.
We need real, science-backed solutions: climate-resilient infrastructure, restored wetlands, strict zoning, updated pumping systems and an inter-agency approach that actually functions. Or what about a start-from-scratch master planning with built-in flood and disaster resilience from the ground up.
And let’s not forget public participation. Because this is not just government’s job to clean up the mess. We’re all in this bowl together.
Flooding in Metro Manila is not just a weather problem. It’s not just about garbage or infrastructure. It’s a failure of governance, of foresight and of courage to confront the ugly truth: we created this crisis, and unless we work together, it will only get worse.
Stop all these blame games. What we urgently need are actions in the right direction.