Thursday, September 25, 2025

another day another storm due to hit: expect flooding

the last typhoon hit the extreme north of the Philippines but the low pressure sucked in the monsoon rains so western Luzon had floods. This includes Manila, which is on the west coast of Luzon.

The problem is that the roads in Manila often flood with heavy rain, due to poor drainage and the drainage canals being blocked by debris/trash that people just throw away into the streets or canals.

 Joy returned on Tuesday from Thailand  but she said that they did not run into flooded streets so got home from Manila without problems.

And now, another low pressure area is threatening to hit this weekend but like the last typhoon, it is close enough to suck in monsoon rains from the west, so they are closing schools in Manila (Not in our area however),,,,,,,

....

this video is in Tagalog but does show maps of what is going on

...

the heavy rains leading to floods is common in the Philippines, which is why there are huge anti corruption protests in Manila going on. 

Apparently, government had authorized billions of pesos for flood control projects, but somehow a lot of that money was misspent or disappeared.

note: Exchage rate is about 55 pesos for one US dollar, so one billion pesos is the equivalent of about 17 million USD.

ABS-CBN has timeline of the flood control scandal problem.

The flood control corruption scandal, which first came to light during President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr’s 2025 State of the Nation Address, centers on the alleged loss of P118 billion in government funds, which went to a web of favored contractors, lawmakers and other officials involved in the construction of government flood projects in the last 3 years.

Despite the reported completion of some 5,500 flood control projects since 2022, numerous media reports have revealed many substandard and “ghost” flood control projects that were exposed following massive floods in parts of the country this year

Go to link for timeline.

some projects not even started, some done but with shoddy materials and oodles of money possibly diverted to unknown parties.

>Wikipedia page here.

The controversy centers on billions of pesos allocated for flood management initiatives, reports of "ghost" projects,[a] substandard construction, and the alleged cornering of contracts by a small group of favored contractors. In response, a series of protests against alleged corruption was conducted in commemoration of the 1972 declaration of martial law.[b]

as the wikipedia article notes: This is a developing story.

The background? Corruption.

all the local bishops (not just the Catholic ones) have condemned those involved in the fraud.

“This scam is a clear betrayal of the public trust because it keeps billions of pesos from going to the most vulnerable populations, such as farmers and the urban poor,” the bishops said.

well duh.

until the bishops and other clergy start naming names and excommunicating those who stole the money, most of us will just shrug. 

the problem is that these people are "walang hiya": Without shame. 

This is the way some people do business, so probably a lot of them don't even recognize what they are doing is wrong.

But excuse me for not being impressed until they start throwing out the criminals. One doubts they will ever pay back what they diverted, or go to jail for fraud.

 As our ten year fight for justice against the ex mayor behind the hit that murdered our nephenw in the crossfire shows, justice is slow and incomplete, and when you die, never mind: You will be buried with a full requium mass complete with Knights of Columbus body guard

Sigh


however, as to typhoons and flooding: we are safe so far: here it is overcast with heavy rains on and off, but no flooding.


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