MANILA, Philippines — “What happened to ‘building back better’?” asked Senate President Francis Escudero following the widespread flooding induced by the Super Typhoon Carina (international name: Gaemi) and the southwest monsoon.
The phrase appears to be a play on the name of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s flagship infrastructure project, “Build Better More”.
“Ganito na lang ba palagi? Tatanggapin na lang natin na kapag malakas ang ulan, magbabaha at mapaparalisa ang ikot ng buhay natin? Ano’ng nangyari sa ‘building back better’?” Escudero asked in a statement on Thursday.
(Is it always going to be like this? We will accept that the rains are strong, it will flood and the flow of our lives are paralyzed? What happened to ‘building back better’?)
According to a statement from the Senate, Escudero wants a “thorough investigation into the government’s flood control projects in light of the severe flooding despite the multibillion-peso allocation every year.”
The Senate Committee on Public Works, chaired by Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr., will conduct the inquiry to discover why there was an apparent inefficiency of flood control projects. Around P255 billion was allotted for the Department of Public Works and Highways’ flood control projects out of the P5.768 trillion for the 2024 National Budget.
“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.
The Senate President said that calamities have turned into a cycle, from classes being suspended, the deployment of frontliners, volunteer efforts, and then damage assessment.
Escudero is not the only lawmaker from the Upper chamber to be upset by the floods. Sens. Juan Miguel Zubiri and Joel Villanueva apparently pointed to reclamation activities as a contributor to the floods.
“Reclamation pa more! (More reclamation),” Villanueva told reporters in a previous message.
The Senate has had to suspend work for two days due to inclement weather caused by Carina and the southwest monsoon. Over 1 million Filipinos were affected by the weather systems, with at least 14 people reportedly dead.
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