Marcos blames climate change, trash for NCR flood

President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. pointed to climate change and trash as the causes of Wednesday's massive flooding brought by the heavy rains of the Habagat (Southwest Monsoon) enhanced by tropical cyclone Carina.

In his remarks after his ocular inspection of affected areas in Metro Manila, Marcos also cited the damaged navigation gate that was hit by a ship in Navotas.

Just on Monday, Marcos said in his third State of the Nation Address that over 5,000 flood control projects had been completed. 

“Mas marami tayong flood control ngayon kaysa noon pero climate change. This is what the effects of climate change are,” the chief executive said during his visit to Malabon City. 

(We have more flood control today but there’s climate change. This is what the effects of climate change are.) 

Further, Marcos also said that improper waste disposal has also resulted in deep flood waters during heavy rains. 

“Nagkaproblema lang. Sana matuto naman ang tao. Huwag kayong nagtatapon ng basura dahil ‘yung basura, ‘yun ang nagbara doon sa mga pump natin kaya hindi kasing effective na puwede,” he added. 

(We just had a problem. I hope people will learn. Please don’t simply throw your waste because these can clog our pumps, that’s why they are not that effective.) 

In the aftermath of Super Typhoon Carina, several senators hit the implementation of flood control projects which they said were allocated hundreds of billions under the national budget yearly.

Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero questioned the effectiveness of flood control measures and the use of the annual budget allocated for these projects.

According to Escudero, around P255 billion was allocated for the DPWH’s flood control projects in the P5.768-trillion national budget for 2024, which he previously tagged as disproportionately large compared to other critical sectors.

“Anong nangyari sa daan-bilyon na flood control projects ng DPWH, MMDA at mga lokal na pamahalaan?” Escudero asked.

Escudero said the Senate public works committee, chaired by Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr., will conduct an inquiry to “uncover the reasons behind the apparent inefficacy of the flood control projects despite the substantial funding.”

This inquiry, Escudero said, aims to assess the current state of the flood control systems and develop actionable solutions to ensure that the substantial investments in these projects yield the intended results which are protecting communities from flooding and mitigating the impact of severe weather events.

He recalled that in last year’s budget deliberations, the P255 billion budget for flood control far exceeded the allocations for irrigation which is at P31 billion, the construction of new hospitals, and even the capital outlay budgets of the Department of Agriculture at P40.13 billion, and the Department of Health at P24.57 billion.

He also pointed out last year that the flood control budget surpasses the proposed budgets of entire departments, including the Department of National Defense at P232.2 billion and the Department of Social Welfare and Development at P209.9 billion.

“With Metro Manila now under a state of calamity and the government now working to address the damage wrought by Typhoon Carina, we should also work to determine why—over a decade after Typhoon Ondoy—chronic, severe flooding continues to afflict the nation’s capital,” Escudero said.

“Ganito na lang ba palagi? Tatanggapin na lang natin na kapag malakas ang ulan, magbabaha at mapaparalisa ang ikot ng buhay natin? Anong nangyari sa ‘building back better’?” the Senate president asked.

(Is it like this every time? We would just accept that every time it rains hard, it would result in floods and our lives would be paralyzed. Whatever happened to 'building back better'?) —NB, GMA Integrated News