When calamity meets corruption

The Philippines reels from typhoons, floods, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and other climate-related disruptions. Yet the whole country seems absorbed in the ongoing investigations into the corruption in flood control projects.

Watching some official responses to this dual calamity of graft and natural disaster is like viewing a predictable bunch of Netflix series where the plot never changes, the actors are the same, and the final scene never seems to unfold.

Floods swallow up entire cities after just an hour of rain, leptospirosis spreads, schools close, travel halts despite supposed mega flood control projects. 

For decades, the Philippines has been listed among the world’s five most climate-vulnerable nations. But despite warnings, expert studies, international pledges, and a trillion pesos in climate mitigating projects, the response remains muted. 

Disasters still catch us unready, casualties keep rising, evacuations come too late, repairs too slow while life surreally goes on. We are always reacting instead of anticipating, comforting instead of protecting communities, and rebuilding inferior structures that will inevitably be destroyed again.

The human toll rises not only from natural forces but from ignorance, neglect, and false hopes.  After each disaster, officials visit evacuation centers and deliver their usual prepared speeches about resilience, then pose beside sacks of relief goods for future political campaigns. But resilience is not only standing up after a fall, it is preventing the same fall from happening again and again. 

Good governance requires foresight, planning, implementation, and stewardship.

The public, however, sees our climate response as confused, fragmented, and driven more by rhetoric than resolve.

Agencies overlap, responses are conflicted, and billions fill the pockets and houses of the Discayas and other ghost project contractors. 

The Climate Change Commission lacks enforcement power and is flooded with empty and symbolic vision.  Floods submerge cities, crops are lost, and coastal villages vanish under rising seas and the poor who contribute least to carbon emissions suffer the most. 

The climate disasters expose the fragility of our institutions and the disconnect between leadership and science. Governance is often too myopic and politically motivated, dictated by election calendars rather than the rhythms of the seasons. Disaster funds become tools of patronage rather than instruments of prevention. Infrastructure budgets rarely include climate-proofing, and even basic measures like drainage maintenance and green urban planning are mismanaged or deprioritized, unless they can be used for photo ops and the usual “praise-releases” all with a view to the next election.          

We treat climate change as an act of God rather than an act of man requiring conscience and accountability. Every choice in land use, transport, energy, or urban development is a climate decision. The true test of leadership is whether officials can plan beyond their terms, serving a future they may never see.

Government must move from reactive relief to proactive risk reduction. Budgets should prioritize flood control, reforestation, renewable energy, and climate-resilient agriculture, not merely relief distribution and photo opportunities. Local governments should be incentivized more toward prevention and less toward emergency response.

Transparency requires that local and foreign climate funds must be traceable and free from political discretion. The whole of society should be watchdogs to ensure “green projects” are not repackaged pork barrel funds. 

Environmental awareness should be integrated in all levels, from grade school to executive programs, and climate literacy must be made common among business leaders, barangay captains and policymakers.

Finally, resilience must be redefined. It should not be a slogan for endurance but a mandate for justice, protecting the vulnerable while preventing the powerful from plundering the wealth of the nation.

The climate crisis tests our infrastructure, moral fiber, and foresight, compelling us to place science above politics and greed. Passing this test will determine our struggle for survival and renewal.

Unless we take control of the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the land we live on, we will perish as a nation.