Flooded Again, Fooled Again
By: Estelle Dorosan
Every rainy season in the Philippines feels like a deja vu: rising waters, stranded commuters, and submerged houses. In the country visited by around 20 typhoons a year, flooding is not just a natural hazard, but a national habit. Flooding has become so predictable it has become a part of the national calendar. And the tragedy is: we know it’s coming, yet we remain knee-deep in the same problem, year after year. This makes us question: should we keep pouring billions into flood control projects, or should we rethink the way we fight the water?
Flood control is essential, but not in the way it is usually imagined. Honest governance and sustainable design are important, but they are not enough. Real effectiveness requires strong investment in community development. Anything less is just money flowing down the drain.
History repeats itself, they say, but in the Philippines, it floods back, washing away lessons we never seem to learn. According to Emmanuel Luna in his study about Community Development Approach in the Recovery of Selected Communities Affected by Typhoon Ondoy Flood, in September 2009, Metro Manila and the surrounding communities experienced the worst flood due to Typhoon Ondoy and Pepeng. The depth of the flood reached 30 ft in some communities, submerging a number of urban poor areas. It killed over 400 people leaving billions in damages. In 2024, Tropical Storm Kristine affected 9.6 million individuals with 160 dead, according to PDI. It damaged more than PHP 7 billion worth of agricultural infrastructure and products nationwide. These storms are different in name but the aftermath looks painfully similar: ruined homes, ruined livelihoods, ruined lives. If the same disasters keep repeating, maybe the bigger problem is that we keep repeating over mistakes, too.
Key findings by Reuters showed that out of 545 billion pesos in flood control spending since 2022, thousands of projects were either substandard, poorly documented, or non-existent. In the report of Rappler, public officials ask for a commission not lower than 10% and as high as 25% for every contract said by the Discaya couple. And yet, despite these records, the same names return to power every election. Flood control works only when it is transparent, sustainable, and people-centered – not when it is treated as another cash cow.
Without transparency, budgets drown in ghost projects. Without accountability, officials profit while citizens suffer. But there’s only one force stronger than flood waters: the people’s choice. If Filipinos demand honest leaders, demand open books, and demand projects that truly protect the communities, then flood control can finally be what it should have been all along. It should be for the people– not a business for the powerful. The rain will always fall but it is up to us to decide whether the cycle of disaster falls with it.
