Senator Joel Villanueva answers query from the media on Wednesday during the Kapihan sa Senado forum on July 31, 2024. (NOY MORCOSO / INQUIRER.net)
MANILA, Philippines — Keep an eye on flooding as much as you keep an eye on Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos), Sen. Joel Villanueva urged President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Wednesday.
“You have to be serious about it. I’m also calling on Malacañang. As serious as we are about Pogo, let’s be serious about this too,” Villanueva said, speaking partly in Filipino, at the Kapihan sa Senado forum.
“Otherwise, tanggalin na natin ang pondong ito because it’s a waste of money. It’s an awful waste of time, awful waste of money,” Villanueva said .
“Otherwise, let’s get rid of this fund because it’s a waste of money. It’s an awful waste of time, [an] awful waste of money.”
The senator made the appeal after lamenting about the perennial flooding in the Philippines, especially after the recent onslaught of Typhoon Carina which enhanced the southwest monsoon.
“This happens every year. I already mentioned this last year. You were also there in the Senate hearing last year. No one believes in the Senate anymore,” he said.
“No one believes the government anymore that it will do anything to address the problem because every single year it’s getting worse.”
To support his remarks, the senator pointed out that the Department of Public Works and Highways, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and the Commission on Climate Change, had a combined budget of P1.44 billion a day.
This budget alone can fund 700 classrooms a day, according to Villanueva.
“Can you imagine, we can have 700 classrooms built in a day instead of putting it into a waste project? Well, tell me that it’s not a waste. Go ahead. Prove it to me that it’s not a waste project,” he said.
The “project” that the senator was referring to was the government’s flood control programs.
In his third State of the Nation Address, Marcos said 5,500 of these initiatives had so far been completed, but Villanueva admitted to thinking that the chief executive might have been misled.
READ: Villanueva’s dare: I’ll quit if proven reclamation doesn’t worsen Bulacan floods
Meanwhile, two Senate committees — on public works and on the environment, natural resources, and climate change — will conduct an inquiry on Thursday into the country’s flood control master plan and pending flood control projects.
“What’s going to happen? What do you think is going to happen? Let’s again enumerate this one by one. I have learned how to raise my voice and how to lower my voice. What more can we do? Should we do this every day? Let’s look at all these,” Villanueva said.
Despite his frustration, he made clear that there would still be a need to investigate this matter so that the country’s flooding problem could be minimized once and for all.