WATER DOES not care who we voted for. It does not stop at a town boundary or ask which politician we support. It simply follows gravity.
So why do we keep treating floods as a political problem?
For years, the country has known that flooding needs long-term, basin-wide solutions. This is not new. The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has worked with the Philippines on flood control since the 1970s. Its 1990 master plan stressed a basic point that rivers must be managed as basins, not as separate towns. Otherwise, water simply moves to the next unprotected area.
Yet we seem unable to learn this lesson.
Look at the Pampanga River Basin.
As early as 2013, a proposal was made to use part of the Candaba Swamp as a large water-impounding area. It was revived in 2023. The idea was to hold excess water before it overwhelmed communities downstream. But it faced opposition, including concerns over farmers, agricultural land and livelihoods.
Those concerns are valid and must be heard.
But if the answer is NO, what is the better plan?
Saying no is not enough. The public has the right to demand an alternative. It must be tested, funded, built and measured.
Otherwise, political bravado becomes a very costly luxury for ordinary people.
The cost of flooding is enormous. Yet we continue to spend billions to fight it. The 2025 flood-control budget reached about P257 billion. By May 2025, the government reported 9,856 flood-control projects completed since July 2022, with another 5,700 ongoing.
Yet Pampanga, Bulacan, Metro Manila and many other areas still flood.
So, the question is simple: Are we spending wisely?
The Department of Public Works and Highways reported that 9,855 flood-control projects from July 2022 to May 2025 cost P545.64 billion. Of that amount, 20 percent went to just 15 contractors.
Every taxpayer should be concerned.
We must stop building projects simply because they fit a district, a politician or a budget cycle. Floods cross political boundaries. Our solutions must cross them, too.
And engineers cannot do this alone.
We need hydrologists, climate scientists, environmental experts and planners. We need historians who know where old rivers flowed and how waterways changed. We need farmers and communities who have lived with these waters for generations.
We should also learn from countries that have faced similar challenges. Japan has worked with the Philippines on flood management for decades. The Netherlands has built much of its experience around living with water.
We do not need another political contest.
We need one national flood strategy based on science, evidence, the river and not on who gets credit.
Because the next flood will not ask who won the election.
It will ask if we are ready.
And if we are not, no blame game, relief pack or political speech will bring back the homes, businesses, livelihoods and lives the water takes.
Enough of politics. Enough of waiting. It is time to fix the floods.