The Philippines has suffered damaging floods despite the billions of pesos paid to contractors for hundreds of flood control projects, mostly in Bulacan province. The Senate has uncovered fake projects, overpricing, and underperformance by contractors.
Some senators claimed in recent hearings that corruption is so widespread that investigators cannot cope, while law enforcement against fraud and corruption is weak and prone to bribery aimed at covering up anomalies. Corrupt politicians are part of the dirty deals, receiving kickbacks from contractors after approving flood control projects. This makes the contractors unable to implement the projects properly.
The people suffer: waterborne diseases spread; roads become impassable, preventing people from going to work; small houses are inundated, with floodwaters rising knee-high, destroying property; and electricity is cut off, spoiling food. All these and more cause hardship to millions of people. The economic cost runs into billions of pesos, and repairing the damage costs billions more.
If the senators are to be believed, all these result from corruption because the contractors failed to provide adequate drainage systems. Natural forces worsen the situation: land subsidence and rapid urbanization cause overcrowding and clogging of canals and rivers, blocking water flow and ultimately contributing to the problem.
This will continue because we are facing a climate crisis, with rising temperatures due to the burning of coal, oil, and gas, and with progress slow in building alternatives like wind and solar power plants.
Stronger and more frequent typhoons are the result of global warming. Europe is scorching, its forests burning day and night, devastating huge areas and destroying the carbon sinks that could prevent temperatures from soaring.
The warming of oceans — the greatest absorber of carbon dioxide — is another major threat. Oceans help slow the rise in global temperatures and keep them below the dangerous threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius. But the intense heat is melting glaciers in both the North and South poles. Glaciers elsewhere are also melting, flowing into oceans and raising sea levels. Warmer oceans change biodiversity, causing schools of fish to migrate to cooler waters, disrupting the food chain.
Increasing temperatures also cause acidification, leading to coral bleaching, reducing fish populations further, disrupting migration, and threatening other marine species.
Research shows there are approximately 1.9 to 2.3 million registered small-scale coastal Filipino fishermen. They are generally poor and rely on whatever they catch daily. They also provide almost half of the nation’s fish, sustaining hundreds of thousands of fish vendors and supplying families with nutritious, high-protein food. Climate change and ocean warming endanger this vital sector.
In 10 years, waters from Manila Bay could be flowing into the University of Santo Tomas. Property owners near the bay can expect worse floods in the future. The ocean cannot be stopped or held back, and the danger it poses is rising.
Coal-fired plants
The Manila Electric Co.’s (Meralco) plan to build more coal-fired plants goes against the well-being and interests of the Filipino people.
Its power-generation arm, Meralco PowerGen Corp., plans to build one plant in Toledo, Cebu, and another in Atimonan, Quezon. By burning more fossil fuels, Meralco contributes further to global warming, making itself an enemy of the people and a destroyer of the environment, while posing as a savior by providing electricity — which is not cheap — and generating millions of pesos for its shareholders. The plants will not only cause greater global warming, more floods, and droughts but also destroy biodiversity.
People have been protesting against these projects for 10 years, but government officials continue making corrupt deals when approving permits. Their kickbacks must be huge. The corrupt are sure to be punished for their sins against the people and God’s creation. Coal-burning plants like Meralco’s are among the worst polluters. A just government or Supreme Court that cannot be bribed, and that has conscience and courage, must stop them.
What is unstoppable at present — unless we cut fossil fuel power generation — is the alarming rise in global temperatures. Last year was the warmest so far, with the average global temperature exceeding 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
We can see it increasing, and we can expect more frequent, intense, prolonged, and damaging weather events: stronger typhoons, floods, droughts, and heat waves; damage to infrastructure and crops; fish migration; and rising sea levels. Other consequences include mass migration from South to North — already happening — and the likelihood of more wars and violence. Millions of poor and starving people will leave their homes for wealthier regions.
The nation’s elite must find a moral compass, repent of their greed and corruption, and summon conscience and courage to do justice for the people, the environment, and the nation.
Note: Any original information, stories, or news articles posted on this site that are authored by the Preda Foundation and Father Shay Cullen may be shared, copied, or reproduced without further permission, in support of truth, freedom of expression, and the public’s right to know.
LiCAS News was granted permission to republish and adapt this article by Father Shay Cullen in the spirit of truth-telling and the pursuit of justice.
Irish missionary Father Shay Cullen, SSC, founded the Preda Foundation in Olongapo City in 1974 to promote human rights and the rights of children, especially victims of sexual abuse.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of LiCAS News.
