For the past two months, it seemed like we have been watching a zarzuela. Not “Walang Sugat” (without wounds or scars), an opera on the Spanish period, but a modern one. Perhaps it is more like “The Flooded Gates of Hell” or “Ang Baha sa Impyerno” as Senator Ping Lacson puts it. We can tell the mood of the times by watching people during social gatherings. Or through a cursory review of media content during the past weeks. Or listening to your Grab driver. Any researcher doing a study of the current pulse of the nation would find an answer by counting the number of times certain words are used in titles of columns, broadcast content and all forms of social interaction, The mood is “anger” couched in words like corruption, transparency, accountability, and cuss words.

The people are angry. “Tama na, sobra na” and familiar phrases describing exasperation are often heard. We caught images of these emotions during the Sept. 21 “A trillion Peso March” at the People Power Monument and later, at the Baha sa Luneta, where hundreds of thousands of youth, celebrities, clergy, leaders and members of people’s organization convened to air grievances, offer prayers, and called on the government to come up with a credible response.

What makes it doubly aggravating is that heavy rains, flooded streets, cancelled classes had made it difficult for students, wage earners, and even government functionaries to perform usual duties. Daily wage earners are deprived of much needed income; students are deprived of learning that would enable them to become competitive.

All the above are accompanied by daily reports that demonstrated the after effects of the flood mess. Some 1,000 classrooms which are unusable because they are not fit in their present condition. Four hundred of 600 special health centers of the Department of Health are also unused. All because the intended funds were reportedly funneled into the pockets of legislators, DPWH executives, and contractors. What had made the blood of an otherwise patient public figuratively rise is that the theft of hundreds of billions was done through a well-designed system that allocated certain percentages for intended beneficiaries over a period of time. And most of us were not aware that this was happening. Our national debt had ballooned and the country is at “risk” of losing its competitiveness and growth. The Asian Development Bank warned that it may slow the government’s infrastructure push. As some may know, ADB had ranked the country as Southeast Asia’s second fastest growing economy, next to Vietnam.

The people will be closely watching how the newly created commission, the Independent Commission on Infrastructure will perform. It is headed by a former Supreme Court Justice, Andres Reyes Jr. The DPWH has done a revamp with a new secretary, Vince Dizon, and five new undersecretaries. Speaker Romualdez had resigned and was replaced by Faustino Dy. Some 21 individuals, three from the Senate and the House as well as executives of DPWH, and contractors are on the list of suspects. But the success of this initiative will depend not merely on political will but an active citizen watch and advocacy. This is especially needed at the local government level where the flood control projects are situated.

It will be remembered that our Local Government Code stipulates the active participation of NGOs in the implementation of programs and projects. But the monitoring reports indicate that this is not happening as expected. Thus, while focus today is on new legislation and prosecution of those suspected to have benefitted from the trillions of pesos intended for flood control, a similar effort must be given to building a credible advocacy at both center and the local level, building on the motivation, and energy of the youth. As initial findings show, we must first dismantle the system that had been entrenched for years in the procurement, and utilization of public funds.

The advocacy initiative should be able to channel the existing anger and frustration of our people into positive action. Led by credible youth leaders like Vico Sotto, Kiko Aquino Dee, and others belonging to Gen X, and utilizing creative strategies for “watchdog” functions, eliciting people participation, and designing new development models by combining the software of innate Filipino wisdom and the hardware of today, digitalization and AI, this could also be a vehicle in identifying new strategies for development planning as well as future leaders of the country.

While we are reeling from this recent incredible and unfortunate episode in our country’s history, perhaps we could think of it as the necessary evil in stimulating collective consciousness. Let’s start this journey toward an alternative path.

The flood control mess is an important lesson for all of us. ([email protected])