President Marcos delivers his fourth State of the Nation Address today as the death toll from days of torrential rainfall and flooding induced by the monsoon and tropical cyclones stood at 31, with six still missing.
The highest confirmed death toll was recorded in Metro Manila with nine fatalities, followed by Central Luzon with two. Apart from the interior secretary poking fun at the disaster, highlighting the calamitous communication problem in this administration, the flooding has heightened calls for transparency and accountability in the utilization of people’s money.
Where do our taxes for flood control go?
Over the weekend, Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who is subjecting to thorough scrutiny previous annual outlays, raised the possibility that up to P1 trillion of the P2 trillion appropriated for flood control projects since 2011 could have been lost to corruption.
Lacson expressed what is in many people’s minds: “Why is the rise in funding (for flood control) directly proportional to the rise in floodwater levels?”
President Marcos, in the first half of his term, curbed the egregious human rights violations in the previous administration, renewed the country’s alliance with the United States and asserted Philippine sovereign rights in the West Philippine Sea based on arbitration anchored on international rules. His government, although indirectly, sent his predecessor to The Hague to answer for the thousands killed in a brutal crackdown on illegal drugs.
Today in his fourth SONA, President Marcos is expected to address the issues in which he has received low marks in reputable surveys, led by inflation and unemployment. The problem could get worse as the country grapples with tariffs slapped by Washington on different countries.
Despite two laws to cut red tape, the country trails its neighbors in terms of ease of doing business and in attracting job-generating foreign direct investments. Populist initiatives to legislate wage rates has spooked the business community, hastening shifts to AI-enabled technology that threaten jobs.
The monsoon season has highlighted two serious problems that the President must also address: the crisis in education and institutionalized corruption, with the annual national budget mangled for personal purposes by politicians. The scandal over the national budgets for 2024 and 2025 has eroded public trust in the administration and strengthened its opponents.
Corruption is being blamed for the failure to mitigate the annual floods, even as experts warn that climate change is making the problem worse. The huge amounts allocated for flood control in the past decade to the Department of Public Works and Highways and, in Metro Manila, to the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority seem to have simply gone down the drain.
Halfway through his term, the President must put an end to the thievery and reassure the people that the government can be entrusted with public funds.