My Town Is Flooded Most of the Year—Officials Misappropriate Taxpayer Money

A public school teacher remains accustomed to floods as a way of life.

The teacher takes a paddle boat through waterlogged streets almost daily. It's the only way to move from where she lives in the suburbs to the center of a low-lying town near the Philippine capital.

This vessel takes her to work, and to the medical facility where she is being treated for a serious illness. She mentions she experiences dry streets for a brief period each year.

Yet this year she is deeply frustrated.

A particularly intense rainy season has disrupted daily life like never before in the South East Asian nation, and ignited anger and claims about graft in flood control projects.

Heavy precipitation have trapped millions mid-commute, caused vehicles to drift in thoroughfares that have become rivers and caused outbreaks of a waterborne disease, an illness affecting the liver that propagates through the excrement of rodents.

"I feel let down," the teacher says. "I put in effort, I don't spend too much and deductions are withheld from my salary each pay period. I find out that billions in public funds are being enjoyed by dishonest officials."

It's a charge that is resonating throughout the country, where residents are questioning why the authorities cannot control the inundation with the billions of pesos it allocates to public works like roads, viaducts and flood barriers.

Public outrage is palpable on online platforms, digital spaces and microblogging sites, where they are voicing toward officials and business magnates who they assert win contracts for nonexistent projects that never materialise.

President Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos personally admitted this as a persistent problem on a inspection tour to examine a barrier that he then found did not exist. A top official later said corruption had claimed the majority of public funds earmarked for flood control.

The legislative leader, who has been implicated, has resigned, although he disputes any wrongdoing. And the leader of the Senate has been removed after it was revealed that a business who won a government bid was discovered to have contributed money to his 2022 campaign, which is against the law.

Frustrated Filipinos have been stitching together AI videos of lawmakers as crocodiles, a metaphor of greed. Much the frustration is also focused on nepo babies, the children of affluent politicians or contractors, whose extravagant lives are featured across social media.

Browsing through her feeds, the teacher says she relates most to a piece of music from years back which has become the soundtrack to the public fury.

The track, by local artist Gloc-9, questions why officials are unable to empathise with common folk. Its name means chair in Tagalog, and it channels the resentment at those with elected roles who seem distant from the lives of ordinary Filipinos.

"The track is the truth," Ms Tolentino says. "There are no better words."

An extensive integrity protest is already planned for this weekend—the observance of the day in the past when then leader Ferdinand Marcos declared emergency rule.

His son, who is now leading the country—Bongbong Marcos—is well aware of how far public anger can go. It was, people's movements that drove his father from power in that year, ending a lengthy dictatorship that stole billions from the state.

In recent times, public outcry forced legislative reform in Indonesia and, recently, overthrew the government in Nepal. And so on Monday, as Filipinos demanded an explanation, President Marcos Jr announced an probe that would "expose the swindlers and find out how much they stole."

"If I wasn't president, I might be joining the protests with them," he told reporters.

"Let them know how much they harmed you, how they misused from you. Let them know, shout at them, rally—just make it peaceful."

This mirrored previous statements when he promised relief from the floods while appearing to pin the blame elsewhere. He faulted corrupt politicians and contractors for the significant shortage of infrastructure: "This is disgraceful," he said.

Then in a public statement he said he had uncovered a "alarming" fact: the government department had hired only 15 firms to build flood control projects worth billions in local currency ($a huge amount).

Each of these firms are now under review and the monetary institution has blocked their assets, but the primary scrutiny has gone to a single firm. It is owned by business owners, who were raised in poor families but are now a prosperous, high-flying couple engaged in social media. Earlier, she was best known for her failed attempt to become local leader of a urban area.

Late last year the couple were profiled on online shows, where they shared their rags-to-riches story. The presenter described it as "inspiring". But in the wake of the severe weather, those videos have gained renewed attention as targets of frustration.

The footage reveals the couple showing off their multiple luxury cars, including a premium automobile, a Lincoln Navigator and a Porsche Cayenne. They bought some models in contrasting hues, black and white.

Public response was quick. They were called by the government inquiries for investigations, and authorities blacklisted their firm, while demonstrators smeared the gates to their office with mud and graffitied the word "offender".

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