Dangerous ‘resilience’

Call it divine intervention. This is how Sen. Panfilo Lacson sees the heavy rainfall and catastrophic floods that continue to inundate Metro Manila and other parts of Luzon.

The disaster, Lacson said, has rekindled public outrage over the flood control corruption scandal. He hopes that the outrage will be sustained.

Unlike in the 2025 wet season, today’s public anger is worsened by the thought that a year since the “mahiya naman kayo” anti-corruption crackdown was launched and the government promised to fix defective flood control infrastructure, there’s not a lot to show for the promises.

Worse, flood control projects aren’t the only ones turning out to be defective. Over the weekend, two concrete bridges collapsed one after the other, forcing a long detour to enter Tarlac City.

Public works officials said supporting pillars of the Aquino and Agana bridges gave way from the force of the Tarlac River current. But the 25-year-old Aquino Bridge was reportedly retrofitted only three years ago. A portion of the Tarlac River Dike that was finished only last February also collapsed.

The Department of Public Works and Highways has just failed a test of the “new normal” following the appearance of potholes in the newly rehabilitated EDSA after just a few days of heavy rain. In fact there are whispers about a new bagman emerging in the DPWH.

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The promise of putting behind bars the big fish in the flood control and budgeting anomalies also faltered way back in Christmas 2025.

We’re now into the “ber” months of 2026, and two incumbent senators plus Curlee and Sarah Discaya are in jail. But people are focused on the TOTGA – the ones that look like they’ll get away – led by the perceived whales in the ocean of corruption, former House appropriations committee chair Zaldy Co and former speaker Martin Romualdez.

An intriguing pattern has emerged, of people popping up to hurl damning stories against Romualdez, and then disappearing. Upon resurfacing, they recant their statements. Romualdez’s camp maintains that he has nothing to do with the recantations.

Former senator Bong Revilla, a veteran of plunder indictments, is suspected to be already one step closer to TOTGA status after he was granted bail by the Sandiganbayan based on insufficiency of evidence.

Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla lamented the propensity of the courts to grant bail even for normally non-bailable offenses such as plunder and malversation of public funds, not only to those undergoing trial, but even to those already convicted but awaiting final judgment on their appeals.

Apart from Revilla, another example is former police senior superintendent Rafael Dumlao III, who was allowed to post bail by Angeles City Regional Trial Court Judge Irin Zenaida Buan even after his conviction for the ransom kidnapping and grisly execution of South Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo inside Camp Crame.

Remulla may be reminded that among the beneficiaries of this liberal application of bail rules is President Marcos’ immortal mother herself, Imeldific.

Convicted of seven counts of graft (no plunder yet when the offenses were committed), Imeldific was allowed by the Sandiganbayan to post bail.

In the four years of the Marcos administration, the anti-graft court has also dismissed, mostly due to inordinate delay, the remaining wealth cases against the current ruling clan.

BBM has drawn flak for telling foreign correspondents recently that the cases were dismissed because it was not proven that the wealth was ill-gotten.

Historical revisionism worked for BBM in the 2022 elections. But this time, that tack is stoking public anger and distrust. And this time, his allies-turned-arch enemies in the UniTeam are among those disputing the false narrative.

You can discern the level of public anger in the reaction to BBM’s crooning love songs to his wife Liza on her recent birthday celebration, while people were drowning, getting electrocuted, falling into open drains, catching leptospirosis and seeing their properties destroyed in the floods.

Pinoys love singing and birthdays are big in our country. Under normal circumstances, that karaoke moment and the need even of presidents for family bonding and some me time would have been understandable. Some might have even been touched by the First Couple’s PDA.

But with everything coming apart around us, from bridges to the rule of law and public accountability, what comes to mind for many people at the sight of that video is, how come they are having fun while we’re drowning in misery?

Gov. Lilia Pineda and her son Vice Gov. Dennis Pineda of flood-submerged Pampanga were also called out after being spotted wearing pricey luxury brands while interacting with their flood-hit constituents.

Speaking to “Storycon” on One News last Monday, Pineda apologized for hurting public sensitivities while pointing out that her family has some wealth. She said that she simply grabs any clothing at hand upon rising for the day’s work.

Whether the explanation will appease the critics remains to be seen.

Lacson is glad to see the anger and hopes it can be sustained until lasting reforms are in place.

Kalookan Bishop Pablo Virgilio Cardinal David posted on Monday a similar message.

“There comes a point when resilience becomes dangerous because it teaches us merely to endure,” David said.

“After every disaster, we are told to be resilient. This time, let us also be defiant,” he declared. “Let us refuse to normalize preventable suffering. Let us demand answers. Let us demand accountability. And where the law allows it, let us act together as citizens to hold accountable those who fail in their duty to protect the public.”

Once the anger disappears and people become indifferent and resigned to the idea that corruption and the waste of public funds are normal, the nation is lost.