Ready for flood control’s next phase? of?
We keep calling them ‘emergencies.’ How long can something remain an emergency? Christmas happens every year, we don’t call Christmas an emergency.
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We keep calling them ‘emergencies.’ How long can something remain an emergency? Christmas happens every year, we don’t call Christmas an emergency.
Excellent news. Government is building real, permanent evacuation centers.
About time, frankly. For years we had this ridiculous idea that government should stop the floods.
Very expensive. P545 billion! Everybody digging, pouring concrete, promising in the SoNA that, next year, definitely next year, your living room will no longer have tilapia.
Then, after all that money, the rain is still raining. Bongbong: “Climate change,” “We cannot do anything about it,” “The way we are.”
Too difficult!
But, aha! If you cannot beat the flood, accommodate the flooded. Your street disappeared? Do not panic. Government has a plan.
No more sleeping in schools, basketball courts, we’re very posh now. Ligtas Pinoy Centers.
P90 million a pop. Two per region being lined up for 2027. Shiny! Toilets. Showers. Separate spaces for women and children.
A clinic, aircon, kitchen, electricity, water, anything else? Swimming pool? Your house is underwater then suddenly everybody has standards.
Clear floor-to-ceiling windows upstairs so you can sit comfortably as you watch the flood destroy your house.
You wonder: why doesn’t my house have these things?
Apparently we knew how to do this the whole time. Supposedly the strongest, safest, best-prepared building in your municipality. Yolanda-grade. Very safe against magnitude-8.4 earthquakes. Unfortunately, you have to go home afterward.
Of course. Back home you go. To the creek you just escaped. You look around. Was there a renovation while I was gone? Did somebody move the river? No? OK. See you next year.
And, frankly, you almost look forward to the next disaster. Because, for once, you get to stay in a building with decent plumbing.
We keep calling them “emergencies.” How long can something remain an emergency? Christmas happens every year, we don’t call Christmas an emergency.
Forget your wife’s birthday once? That’s an emergency. You forget it every year for 25 years? You were long gone.
Admire the economics. We pay for flood control — then pay for evacuation centers because flood control was not controlling.
What a model. You pay for success. You pay for failure. And, if the failure continues, there’s another budget next year.
We used to expect government to keep the water away. Then we expected government to reduce the water. Then maybe it can just warn us before the water arrives.
The standard has inched a little lower, lower still, until one day the promise is no longer that you’ll be safe in your home but that you’ll be safe after you leave it.
That’s the genius of Bongbong: A permanent building for a permanent problem. That’s reassuring.
A successful evacuation center is a very strange success. Imagine your mayor, very proud, “one thousand families evacuated!”
Ideally, sir, your target should be zero. A Ligtas Pinoy Center at 300-percent occupancy means somebody should probably resign.
And they designed it to last 50 years because they believe Filipinos may still be needing the centers 50 years from now.
