(Editor's note: Floods have visible causes to control first as noted by the author.)

In Metro Manila widespread flooding is blamed on rubbish being thrown here and there, small sewers built by low-grade politicians and high tide – reason enough for Metro authorities to dig deeper and bigger canals (again and again) for huge culverts we often see on rainy days. Yes, this also creates monstrous traffic jams two to four km long.

Meeting appointments?

A motorist caught in one such jam at 7 a.m., Monday to Friday, for a hour or two can forget meeting countless appointments and clients. It does not follow that main roads clogged with giant culverts (1.5m in diameter) will stop all kinds of flooding.

Most motorists remember last year’s invectives against the authorities in June, July and August, their chosen months for repairing drainage.

Pledges all the way

Promdis who lived in Manila for years, before and after martial law, can tell tall stories of how the regime’s full power pledged to abolish Metrowide flooding, squatting on private/public land, building shanties on creeks and riverbanks and more wonderful promises to stop pollution. Not a single pledge was ever redeemed when President Cory put an end to martial law - - in full force and effect 13 years, 6 months and 4 days (Sept. 21, 1972 to Feb. 25, 1986).

Waste and pilferage

Since 1986 countless pumping stations were built to control flooding, and one such station south of Manila was reported “not working” on radio last month. The machines were new but drums of diesel fuel were pilfered days before the flood. The thieves did not steal for fun.

Killer flood

In big towns with rain forest flooding is more or less predictable. When mountains and hills suddenly become bald people and their elective officials see a mountain of logs. In one east Visayan town years ago habagat rains had loosened the soil base and hundreds, if not thousands, of giant logs descended on the helpless townfolk. Flood and logs killed 7,000 persons or more in less than 24 hours. Bloated bodies were found on shorelines or still floating.

Deeper/Wider

Floods in certain sections of Mindanao are getting deeper and wider each year, but people were moved to comment that rainfall was not any different in volume from previous years. And all around them they noticed visible change -- trees/rain forests cannot be seen anymore by “observers and protectors” of the environment.

Flood controls Metro

In Metro Manila flood is in control, and it does not make sense anymore to tell people that rubbish and squatter shanties block the free flow of rainwater to the main body called Pasig, which stands still or flows upstream at high tide.

If the flood control stations built over the years are of any help at all commuters and motorists would know, as they know now, that flood is deep enough to contradict all claims of a functional flood control program.

Losses and waste

The investment in flood control projects over the years could run to billions - - and all for nothing.

What are the probable causes of floods big and small? We can cite a few: 1) in most cities and big towns, like Manila, Pasay, QC, etc. natural waterways keep disappearing in the last 30 to 50 years for huge profits to City Hall regulators.

Commerce for all

Big/small creeks have been transformed into commercial lots for hardware, small stores, and homes 2) in towns with rain forests above them the local officials, law enforcers, barangay officials and forest rangers know the causes intimately but cannot mention them openly as against their interests. Illegal loggers have a long and ready list of those “on the take.”

The science to control flood is not as hard as the law of gravity, and this is known to the mainstream population for years.

Bigger and deeper

The construction of anti-flood projects is not strictly monitored by honest and competent government engineers and auditors who are obliged to report all kinds of defects that make the projects useless and wasteful.

The problem of flooding anywhere in RP is not only destructive of progress but a constant impediment to the growth of the economy in general.