Controlling Super El Niño

The Office of the Ombudsman is the end of the line.

When a permit is withheld for a bribe, when relief goods go missing, when a project is paid for but never built, we are the office that steps in after the harm is done. We are the last line of defense for anyone who deals with the government. But by the time a case reaches us, the damage has already been done to a business, a farmer, or a family.

That is why, beginning in January, we are convening a regulatory summit. We will bring together regulators from across the country, cluster by cluster, to find the rules that overlap, contradict each other, and leave gaps. Every gap is an opening where corruption can grow. Every overlap is a chance for a fixer. If we shut them now, there will be less to prosecute later.

The timing matters. PAGASA expects a very strong El Niño to persist into the first half of 2027. It warns of below-normal rainfall, dry spells and drought, with effects on agriculture, water, energy, health, and the wider economy. A crisis like this tests every system at once.

Water allocation, crop insurance, emergency procurement, power supply, and price controls will all be under strain. This is exactly the time when rules are bent, funds are rushed, and accountability is lost. We have seen it before, and we do not want to see it again.

So we do not want this summit to be another round of agencies talking to themselves. We want it to be coherent. Each cluster should know what the others are doing. Each recommendation should be practical enough for a regulator to act on and clear enough for a citizen to check.

To get there, we need people who know these fields better than we do. We are inviting experts to come forward: climate scientists and hydrologists, agricultural economists, energy and water specialists, public finance and procurement experts, disaster managers, lawyers, academics, and the businesses and farmers who live with these rules every day.

Tell us where the system will break under a long drought. Tell us which rules will slow relief, and which loopholes will invite abuse. Tell us what a better rule looks like.

The Ombudsman’s thrust in its second year is to help the economy in every way an accountability office can. Prevention is the most useful thing we can do. If the summit works, fewer people will need to come to our door, because the system will have done its job before anything goes wrong.

Our door is now open. Reach out to us with your ideas, especially on how the country can prepare for the Super El Niño. The best time to fix a rule is before anyone has to answer for breaking it.