Worst presidency, worst Congress

THE worst flooding in years has exposed not only what I have called the worst presidency in our recent history. It has exposed what may well be the worst Congress as well.

More than 8 million Filipinos have been affected by the southwest monsoon and tropical cyclones Luis, Maymay and Neneng. Entire provinces have been placed under a state of calamity.

Roads and bridges have collapsed, farms have disappeared under water, schools have suspended classes and families have watched filthy floodwaters rise inside homes that had supposedly been protected by hundreds of billions of pesos in flood-control works.

Yet where has Congress been?

The House of Representatives and Senate months back investigated the corruption surrounding flood-control projects. Senators have grilled contractors over ghost and substandard projects, while the House has had its own investigations and proposals. That is necessary. But corruption is only half the scandal. The other half is staring us in the face: After the government spent enormous sums supposedly for controlling floods, why did so much of Luzon still go underwater?

That is the investigation Congress should have launched with the urgency of a national emergency. Yet Sen. Erwin Tulfo, just before the floods inundated the country, callously said: “Iikot na lang ba ang mundo natin sa flood control? Can’t we move forward?” Instead of appealing to his colleagues that the impeachment is proving to be a waste of time and that the nation demands a solution to the flooding problem, Sen. Miguel Zubiri complains that he has become so tired as the trial has claimed half of the Senate’s usual work period. Of course, he cannot ask the Senate to stop its law-making tasks. Why doesn’t he bold enough to tell that the impeachment trial is a big waste of time.

Congress should have summoned the country’s best hydrologists, civil engineers, geologists, urban planners, dam operators and local officials and demanded an answer to a simple question: Why did the water go where it did? Congress should be examining river basins, drainage systems, siltation, watershed destruction, land subsidence, dam releases, reclamation, urban development and the thousands of disconnected flood-control projects scattered around the country.

Only San Miguel Corp. President Ramon Ang has given an explanation, at least for a particular flood-hit area he was familiar with. He attributed the flooding along the North Luzon Expressway (NLEx) to soil and debris left behind during the 2024 repair of the NLEx Tulaoc Bridge. Ang said the debris had obstructed the flow of water released from Pantabangan Dam in Nueva Ecija, which cascaded through Pampanga before emptying into Manila Bay.

What Ang did should be what President Marcos Jr. and his official should have been doing: Give the nation a detailed explanation for these recent massive floods. Instead, they have given us generalities, that the esteros were filled with garbage, that the amount of rainfall was unprecedented, and the worst “explanation” — that the flooding problem started even before he assumed the presidency. If Marcos can’t, then it is Congress that should get the facts. How can we even start to solve the flood problem, if we don’t even know the concrete causes for it.

Obsessed

Instead, the political system remains obsessed with who got the contracts and who got the kickbacks. Those are crimes that must be prosecuted. But even if every crooked contractor were jailed tomorrow, Filipinos would still be flooded next year unless the government discovers what is technically wrong with the system and changes it.

It is emblematic that the Congress is led by politicians who are kingpins in two provinces inundated by floods.

Bulacan province was declared under a state of calamity in August. Gov. Daniel Fernando himself publicly asked where the P41 billion reportedly spent on flood-control projects had gone and why Bulacan was still flooded. That question should have thundered through both chambers of Congress.

Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian is from Bulacan. His brother Kenneth Gatchalian is a Bulacan representative, brother Wes is a mayor there, and another brother Rex is social welfare secretary. His father, William, built his plastics empire in the province, which he cleverly used to catapult his sons to politics.

Yet have Sherwin and Kenneth raised an outrage in the halls of Congress over the floods in their province, which in many places are still there after a month, and demanded an explanation? Bulacan has even acquired some international notice, as it was used by the Al-Jazeera tv network in news features depicting the immense suffering of the Filipinos because of the floods.

House Speaker Faustino Dy III is from Isabela, another province prone to flooding. Dy promised House assistance to affected communities and has linked flood risks to the protection of the Sierra Madre mountain range. Gatchalian has demanded more detailed project specifications and feasibility studies to prevent ghost projects. We have to see if the House will follow Dy’s cues, as he hasn’t really built up his leadership in the House to the same level that former speaker Martin Romualdez did because of the financial largesse that he gave to its members.

Millions

With millions affected, the speaker and Senate president should have been standing before the country announcing an emergency, bicameral assault on the causes of flooding. They should have ordered the relevant committees to work continuously until Congress had a technically credible national flood-control program. Instead, the institutional response has been piecemeal and astonishingly slow compared with the magnitude of the disaster.

Only on Sept. 1 did Senate President Pro Tempore Vicente Sotto III file a resolution seeking an inquiry into the root causes and devastating effects of the August calamities, including the collapse of bridges and failure of flood-control works. On the same day, the House Committee on Metro Manila Development approved measures for a science-based, region-wide drainage and flood-control master plan for the capital. One resolution seeking to resume the flood-control investigation was filed as early as June 30 and was still pending with the rules committee by late July. Another resolution, filed last year, explicitly called for a comprehensive, integrated and corruption-free national flood-control master plan.

Don’t hold your breath, though. As soon as the floods recede, there won’t be any appetite for this incompetent Congress to pursue such investigations that don’t hog the headlines.

Congress cannot claim it did not know the problem existed. It knew. It simply failed to treat it with the urgency it deserved.

It is scandalous that a poll by a new outfit called Momentum Research not coincidentally came out at this time with a report that “85.7 percent” of Filipinos rated their own district representative “good” or “very good.” Deputy House Speaker Jay Khonghun promptly presented it as evidence that congressmen were regaining public trust by being visible, responsive and close to their constituents.

That poll was quite stupid. There are 254 congressional districts. Momentum’s 1,438 respondents could not have been in all of these districts. It is entirely possible that many respondents were in districts whose congressmen were doing their job, as in the case of Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco or former Cavite congressman Kiko Barzaga, and none in such districts with representatives the likes of former Albay congressman Zaldy Co.

Stupidity

The simplest analogy for Momentum’s stupidity would be in the school system. Ask 1,438 parents scattered around the country, “Is your child’s teacher doing a good job?” Suppose 86 percent say, “yes.” You may reasonably report that 86 percent approve of their own child’s teacher. You cannot announce that 86 percent approve of the Department of Education, that 86 percent of all teachers are doing a good job. The parents were rating different teachers on the basis of different experiences, not evaluating the institution where they are members of.

Compare Momentum’s glorification of the House to polls made by legitimate pollsters, SWS and Pulse Asia, which have asked Filipinos to evaluate the House of Representatives itself, and not their representatives. In March 2026, SWS surveyed 1,500 adults nationwide and found that only 42 percent were satisfied with the House’s performance, while 29 percent were dissatisfied, for a net satisfaction rating of +13. That is not remotely close to Momentum’s 85.7 percent.

Pulse Asia produced an even starker result in March 2025. Only 37 percent approved of the performance of the House of Representatives, 40 percent were undecided and 23 percent disapproved.

Compare this lethargy with the frenzy Congress demonstrated in its remove-Sara plot, ordered by their master to take her down so she cannot run for president in 2028. Committees can hold marathon hearings, summon television cameras, threaten witnesses with contempt and transform congressional inquiries into a national spectacle. Senators and congressmen can devote weeks to personalities, accusations and political intrigue.

Worst presidency? The floodwaters are making the case. Worst Congress? It is doing a remarkable job of making that case for itself.

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Worst presidency, worst Congress
Source: Breaking News PH