Ghost in the Floods

A major part of the last SONA focused on the President’s renewed commitment to go hard on corruption. Yes, that’s all good. All government officials should. We all should. In one of those interviews where the broadcast media digest the contents of the state of the nation address, campaign strategist Allan Herman commented something to the effect of “it is good, but why only now? He should have started it at the beginning of his term.”. (Of course, I could not remember the exact words, but it was something like that.) I understand. I get the point. Why go on a hard stance against corruption halfway of your term? What’s that? Did he run out of slogans and decided to focus on corruption this year? If he were really serious, he should have made that declaration immediately on the first day on June of his first term. Was corruption suddenly invented in 2025? Was it discovered just months ago? Besides, I heard a similar advocacy long ago from Erap with “walang kai-kaibigan”. I know PNoy also went that direction, although I could not remember his slogan. Duterte came to administration with “change is coming”. What’s new?

On the other hand, I also understand why BBM went that direction in the middle of his term. Last month, weeks before the SONA, typhoons Bising and Crising ravaged and sank most of Luzon under high flood waters. Last October, Kristine was bad. She sank many towns. But Bising sank regions. Floods were everywhere. Now, that probably got the President thinking (as would anyone), “don’t we have flood control projects? Where are those? What happened to them?”. The President must have done some mental math, did some calculations and computations, and concluded that there has got to be a bad case of corruption here. On my end, personally, I wasn’t really surprised. I don’t mean to be cynical, but I have gotten accustomed to government funded projects failing and not living up to expected efficiency.

Now, we get an idea, why he’s taking it hard on corruption just now. The recent massive floods triggered these investigations and inquiries that led legislators to uncover the lid, and now it stinks so bad. No one should wonder why the floods have not been controlled. No flood control project was built in the first place.

So, it had to take a strong Luzon-wide typhoon for government to ask, “hey, wait, are the flood control projects really working? Are we getting our money’s worth?”. Had Luzon not experienced the devastating typhoons, would the President think of that? Maybe not. Regardless of Bising, it would just be a matter of time. Sooner or later, a strong typhoon would come along to shake our senses. It’s a Filipino tradition. But, just like the question on the President’s stance against corruption in his recent SONA, why only now? We have had flood-control projects for years now. We have had floods before the years that we have had flood-control projects, for more years now. Why are the President and Senators suddenly all up against flood-control project just now? Why have they not been checked all these years? Did we just assume that the projects are all working efficiently and every peso has gone to where it’s supposed to go to? In a way, it is good that the government and the public are discovering much of this rotten corruption, so we could work together in fixing it. Most importantly, it gives government the opportunity to correct its mistakes. We have discovered that it has become systemic. But it has become so systemic because the authorities allowed it to be so.

If there has been systemic corruption in flood-control projects, there could be similarly systemic corruption in other government services. Who am I kidding? Of course, there definitely are systemic cases of corruption in other government agencies and services. So, shall we wait for a disastrous calamity before checking it?

My idealistic and naïve mind is appalled that some people could choose money over the safety and security from flood of towns and provinces where their families and friends reside, and where their own property are located. But, I guess the large amount of loot far outweighs any sense of concern for safety, or any sense of propriety or purity.

It’s just interesting that before inquiring about the misuse of funds for flood-control projects. The Senate itself refuse to continue the investigation of allegations of misuse of funds in the Department of Education of one former DepEd Secretary, and decided to just archive the case.

2 Corinthians 8:21: “For we are taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord but also in the eyes of man.”