Flood control back in spotlight as Metro Manila goes underwater

By Norman P. Aquino, Associate Editor

PEDESTRIANS waded through floodwaters while motorists cautiously drove through submerged roads in Metro Manila on Monday, as heavy southwest monsoon rains once again exposed the capital’s vulnerability to flooding.

A Facebook post showed severe monsoon flooding had turned España Boulevard in Manila into a rushing waterway, with children swimming and residents navigating chest-deep water alongside a floating refrigerator — a stark scene that captured the chaos of the capital’s recurring urban floods.

For the government, Monday’s flooding raised a larger question. After a year of controversy over public works spending, how much should the country spend on flood control, where should it spend the money, and how can the public be assured that projects are properly selected, implemented and maintained?

At a House of Representatives budget hearing, lawmakers questioned the proposed return of more than P100 billion in flood control funding under the 2027 national budget. The proposed allocation comes after cuts to flood control projects following a public works corruption scandal that raised questions over how infrastructure projects are selected and funded.

The spending puts flood control at the center of a balancing act. The Philippines needs infrastructure to protect communities and businesses from increasingly disruptive flooding, but it also needs stronger safeguards after allegations that politicians and contractors pocketed billions of pesos in public works funds.

“Not to belittle the amount involved, but the fundamental flaw in the government’s flood control approach is that it seems to be ad hoc and reactive only,” Michael Henry Ll. Yusingco, a senior research fellow at the Ateneo Policy Center, told BusinessWorld via Facebook Messenger. “It’s not anchored on scientific grounds. Clearly, there is no long-term view in the crafting of programs to address flooding.”

The scale of the proposed allocation makes that concern more urgent. A large budget does not automatically mean less flooding. Flood management depends on whether projects are placed in the right locations, whether waterways and drainage systems are maintained, whether structures are completed as designed and whether individual projects work together as part of a wider system.

‘THE NOW AND THE FUTURE’
The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority reported flooding on several major roads. Some sections of Roxas Boulevard were flooded to several inches, while portions of G. Araneta Avenue and Ma. Clara Street in Quezon City reached waist-deep levels and became impassable to light vehicles. Parts of Valenzuela, Las Piñas and Parañaque also recorded flooding.

The rains were brought by the southwest monsoon, so the flooding cannot be attributed to a single failed project. But the disruption illustrates why flood control remains a perennial public investment concern in a densely populated metropolitan area where roads, homes, businesses and transport networks are tightly connected.

“The government should follow the many engineering studies done before instead of just letting politicians in cahoots with Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) district engineers and other corrupt officials decide,” former Budget and Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Romulo L. Neri said in a Viber message, citing the Flood Management Master Plan for Metro Manila prepared by the government in 2012 with technical and financial support from the World Bank.

Mr. Yusingco said the measures being implemented today were designed for the scale of flooding years ago.

“Obviously, it’s very different now, and inundation will likely get worse in the years to follow,” he said. “So, the government’s approach must address both the now and the future. But our current political leaders have no wherewithal to see the problem this way.”

President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. acknowledged the problem during a visit to flood-hit Las Piñas City last week, saying flooding there appeared less severe than in the past because of dredging and drainage-clearing efforts. He also said more work was needed and ordered a review of the long-delayed Las Piñas spillway.

Dredging, drainage maintenance, clearing waterways, restoring spillways and improving existing systems can be just as important as building new flood control facilities.

“The government must prioritize the rehabilitation, dredging and rigorous maintenance of existing infrastructure over building new structures to deliver immediate relief and stop wasting public funds,” Dennis C. Coronacion, chairman of the Political Science department of the University of Santo Tomas (UST), said in a Messenger chat.

“While new, large-scale engineering projects sound impressive, they become expensive monument projects if the baseline drainage systems we already have are blocked, neglected, and failing,” he added.

That makes the proposed 2027 allocation more than a question of how much money is available. It is also a question of how the government defines flood control spending and how it measures whether projects actually reduce flood risk.

At the House hearing, Party-list Rep. Antonio L. Tinio questioned the size and distribution of the proposed flood control allocation and warned that changes during congressional deliberations could create room for insertions.

Budget Acting Secretary Kim Robert C. de Leon defended the proposed figures, saying the Department of Budget and Management based them on its assessment of actual project requirements.

‘POLITICAL CASH COW’
The exchange highlights a problem that has shadowed flood control for years: Even when infrastructure is clearly needed, public confidence can weaken when project selection, costs and budget changes are difficult to trace.

“The P107.4-billion flood control budget is fully justified as an engineering necessity, but completely unjustified if treated as a political cash cow,” Mr. Coronacion said.

“Because of our chronic flood problems, we cannot afford to defund our flood defenses. Instead of removing or cutting the flood control budget, the government must guarantee that every single peso goes into real concrete infrastructure and not to the pockets of our corrupt politicians and DPWH officials,” he added.

Mr. Coronacion said the state is spending heavily on flood control but often does so through fragmented projects.

“For instance, millions are spent repeatedly repairing the exact same riverbanks after every typhoon season,” he said. “Also, substantial funds are funneled into localized, small-scale projects that serve political interests. This is why we need a master plan, not band-aid solutions.”

“Instead of funding isolated projects that merely push floodwaters from one town to the next, we must fund a single, synchronized flood control system,” he added.

For flood control projects, transparency is not simply about publishing a budget figure. It means making it possible to follow a project from proposal to construction: why a location was chosen, what flooding problem it is supposed to solve, how much it costs, who will build it, when it should be completed and whether it actually works.

For residents who see roads submerged after heavy rain, the value of flood control spending is not measured in contracts awarded or kilometers of drainage built. It is measured in whether they can get home, whether businesses can open, whether schools can operate and whether homes remain dry.

The government faces two pressures at once. It needs to restore flood control investment after a period of reduced spending, but it must do so in a way that responds to demands for cleaner and more accountable infrastructure programs.

The proposed P107.4-billion allocation under the DPWH for 2027 is likely to face close scrutiny in Congress. Lawmakers will have to decide whether the projects proposed by the Executive branch are properly targeted, sufficiently documented and capable of being implemented.

At the House hearing, lawmakers pointed to the country’s classroom shortage as one competing priority. Others have raised concerns about underspending, particularly if agencies receive larger capital budgets without the capacity to implement projects on schedule.

That creates a paradox: The Philippines may need to spend more on flood protection, but simply spending more is not enough.

‘THERE NEEDS TO BE ACCOUNTABILITY’
The country needs a flood control system planned across cities and watersheds, maintained after construction and evaluated based on outcomes. It needs clear standards for choosing projects and stronger monitoring of whether contractors deliver what was promised.

Monday’s floods brought the issue back into public view in the most visible way possible: Streets disappeared beneath water while traffic stalled around them.

The return of flood control funding to the 2027 budget is therefore not simply a return to construction. It is a test of whether the government can spend at scale while earning back public trust.

“It is hard to talk about how to balance these types of infrastructure spending when the real issue is the misuse and abuse of public funds by politicians and contractors alike,” Zy-za Nadine Suzara, an independent researcher at the International Budget Partnership, said in an e-mailed reply to questions.

“Before we can even talk about lessons from the flood control controversy, there needs to be accountability. Unfortunately, no one has been held accountable for the whole flood control mess except small fishes,” she added.

Dex Anderson Frogoso, a UST Biochemistry freshman, was stranded for hours on Aug. 17 after floods made España Boulevard impassable. He sheltered at Jollibee P. Noval for six hours before returning to UST, where students remained stranded as floodwaters receded by 10 p.m. “It was very draining,” he told BusinessWorld.

For millions of people living, working and studying in flood-prone areas like him, the measure of success will be much simpler. When the next heavy rain comes, they will want the roads to remain roads, not rivers. — with assistance from Mark Joseph M. Sanchez