Don’t get mad, get even

Someone I know nearly got trapped last Monday when massive flooding turned the North Luzon Expressway into a giant parking lot.

The guy and his companions managed to detour to the MacArthur Highway – only to find themselves facing even worse flooding, which entered the vehicle. For several hours, they sat inside the vehicle, with dirty floodwater reaching up to the seats as traffic crawled at perhaps one kilometer per hour.

There was no food or water and of course no toilet. They had decided to drive north from Metro Manila because the sun had come out. And they had avoided NLEX and turned to the MacArthur Highway because Waze showed light traffic on the old road and they didn’t notice any flood warning. I know Waze shows warnings about flooded streets, but maybe it lacks the imagery for that kind of apocalyptic flooding.

The guy has been advised to take doxycycline as a prevention against leptospirosis. But there’s no prophylactic drug for the other common affliction during floods, athlete’s foot, which is painful and, like most fungal infections, takes time to fully cure.

At least the guy and his companions are still alive, with the capability to avoid the potentially lethal leptospirosis.

Others, tragically, have already died of the bacterial infection, or from drowning, mudslides and electrocution while submerged in floods. A man died after falling into an open curbside drain in Angeles City. Two others are confirmed dead with two others still missing after their Avanza fell into the Tarlac River as it was passing through the Agana Bridge just as it collapsed in the flood.

An overseas Filipino worker mourned the death of her 17-year-old daughter, who was electrocuted when she slipped on a footbridge leading to their flooded home and accidentally touched a live wire in Calumpit, Bulacan on Aug. 19.

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In separate interviews, governors of the three Central Luzon provinces worst hit by the recent floods told “Storycon” on One News that they are used to annual flooding, but that last week’s rainfall had been unusually heavy and was aggravated by the high tide.

But we’ve seen extreme weather since 2009 with Storm Ondoy, and then in 2013 with Super Typhoon Yolanda. What has been done since then?

Two of the governors – Lilia Pineda of Pampanga and Susan Yap of Tarlac – belong to dynasties that have been in power in their turfs for decades. The third, Daniel Fernando of Bulacan, is not part of a dynasty, but has also served the province as governor and before that vice governor since 2010.

All three washed their hands of flood control interventions in their provinces, saying they weren’t even consulted by the national government in deciding which projects to implement.

Flood control, they said, is not among the programs covered by their Local Government Support Fund, which has been ballooning in recent years, and which budget watchdogs describe as a lump-sum, pork barrel-type allocation.

When disaster strikes, what the local governments do is rescue, relief and mitigation ­– helping evacuees and providing a slew of emergency, short-term ayuda.

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Motorists stuck for 10 to 16 hours on the NLEX and MacArthur Highway on Monday got no ayuda from anyone – not even empty bottles for peeing.

The guy I know said men could at least pee in the water. Women said they got out of vehicles to find spots that offered a modicum of privacy and covered themselves with umbrellas to relieve themselves.

One thing that the flood control scandal has done is to show people that the disasters that hit the country every year cannot be blamed entirely on the weather.

The scandal has shown that human greed and evil are as much to blame as nature’s fury – for the thousands of lives lost over the years, the loss of livelihoods and homes, agricultural destruction and the loss of trillions in tax-funded public infrastructure.

And this time, there’s a trail leading to the identities of those responsible for so much public misery, who have illegally enriched themselves on the back of people’s suffering.

People are mad. The question is what people will do with that anger. Will we just grin and bear it again, like misogynists advise rape victims to do? Will we again forgive and forget, until the next monsoon season?

Processes are underway to stop the systematic looting of national coffers, to hold the thieves accountable and end impunity. But the processes are moving slowly, and the looters, as we are seeing, have immense resources to fight back and get the best justice that money can buy.

President Marcos has blamed garbage and heavy rain, and has dusted off a flood control master plan prepared when Rogelio Singson headed the DPWH, which will be updated with some help reportedly from Japan.

Water detention systems are being rushed for rollout by June 2027, when another monsoon season starts as the nation prepares for the 2028 general elections.

The government must show at least some groundbreaking rites for projects under that flood control master plan, if BBM doesn’t want his endorsement power for 2028 turned into a kiss of death.

Extreme weather is the new normal, so current public fury over the floods plus the inaction and plunder that turned flood control into an epic failure is likely to be sustained all the way to the elections.

Let’s hope honest, competent alternatives will emerge, and people will choose officials based on capabilities rather than surnames or expertise in claiming personal credit for state-funded ayuda. The looters and selfish, lazy, entitled incompetents have to go.

Through the ballot, angry people have the power to get even.