Siyam-siyam

We have had about two weeks of almost non-stop rain even in the absence of a typhoon. In Tagalog, we call it siyam siyam.

This supposedly describes nine days of continuous rain that we normally have as we enter the habagat or southwest monsoon season. But what we are having is now beyond nine days.

With the habagat came the floods, exposing incompetence at DPWH. Asphalt used in portions of the newly paved EDSA melted.

DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon told me that the asphalt they used complied with specifications. The secretary said water was getting trapped on the busway because the barriers’ drains are too small. They have to remove or space the barriers so water can drain.

But DPWH civil engineers did not check something as basic as the highway’s drainage before they poured the asphalt. The PRC should suspend their professional licenses.

In other areas like in Central Luzon, ghost flood control projects are haunting residents with the usual floods. The Sandiganbayan and the Ombudsman should speed up the trials to at least show crime shouldn’t pay.

The monsoon rains also revealed how badly we manage garbage. Visuals of all that garbage flowing in the Paranaque River have been beamed worldwide, shaming us for our seeming nonchalance in living in such a dirty environment.

And to think that garbage collection in our cities is the biggest expenditure of local governments. We have heard reports of favored garbage collectors who don’t even collect garbage but just collect their fees that’s presumably shared.

We should just follow Sweden in using garbage to produce electricity. Sweden has run out of trash and must import garbage from other countries to keep its plants running. Our laws banning it are out of date.

It’s not all bad. Just before the monsoon rains started, the water at Angat Dam was way below critical level at a catastrophic, historic low of 150.42 meters on July 25. It breached the reservoir’s 160-meter critical level, making it the lowest-ever recorded water elevation since Angat began operations in 1967.

This was roughly 30 meters short of the 180-meter minimum operating level required to comfortably supply Metro Manila and Central Luzon.

The monsoon rains over the past few weeks started to refill the reservoir. As of Aug. 14, the water level has climbed back up to 180.10 meters, slightly above the minimum operating baseline.

With a severe El Niño expected toward year-end, the ideal target water level for Angat Dam is its normal high-water level of 210 meters to withstand coming months of near-zero rainfall. Angat supplies 90 percent of our water needs in Metro Manila.

We may be tired of all the rainy days we have been having but we need even more rain in the next weeks to make sure Angat Dam is full and ready to keep us hydrated through the seven to eight consecutive months of El Niño starting this November.

The rainy days have also been bad news for workers who lose their income because they are unable to work due to floods or cannot get to work due to a lack of adequate transportation.

A PIDS study suggests that frequent rainy periods, not only major typhoons, “affect labor supply not only through direct exposure but also via disruptions to mobility, production processes and supply chains.”

Rainfall tends to reduce the working hours of vulnerable workers in informal and casual employment, who often have fewer employment protections and less stable sources of income.

Aside from farmers and fishermen, bad weather also affects gig workers (such as delivery riders and drivers for Grab, Food Panda or Angkas) who are treated as independent contractors with no-work-no-pay arrangements.

Last July 22, member states of the ILO adopted a landmark global treaty establishing international standards to protect these gig workers by compelling platforms to offer insurance, hazard pay or algorithmic relaxation when extreme weather puts riders at high risk on flooded roads.

The newly adopted ILO Convention 193 (Decent Work in the Platform Economy Convention) was finalized on June 12, 2026 with a decisive vote of 406 to eight. But to apply here, it must still be ratified by our Senate and most of its provisions codified in a law passed by our Congress.

The ILO convention provides minimum rights that determine how outdoor gig workers are handled during weather disruptions. A core pillar of the convention tackles algorithmic management.

Among the new rules is a call for no penalty for safety declines. Platforms use algorithms that automatically lower a driver’s internal rating, strip away bonuses or restrict account access if they log off or refuse orders.

The treaty mandates that platforms must grant workers the right to appeal if an automated system arbitrarily deactivates their account or docks their pay because they chose to log off during localized flooding, typhoons or hazardous storms.

The ILO convention also pushes for rules such as fair basic remuneration that covers weather-induced delays.

But for us, only an Act of Congress can alter legal employment definitions to stop platforms from evading weather-hazard liabilities. There is a proposed law in the House of Representatives that will specifically criminalize automated algorithmic penalties against gig workers who prioritize their safety during severe weather conditions.

So, for many of us who are only inconvenienced by weeks-long downpour, think of those who actually suffer loss of income and how we can help them. The Grab rider who delivers our food orders or the LalaMove rider who delivers documents to us must be protected by our laws.

Likewise, our farmers and fishermen who deal with floods and drought regularly with little help. They need timely weather forecasts and crop insurance that can be accessed with little or no red tape. We are all in this together.

Boo Chanco’s email address is [email protected]. Follow him on X @boochanco