Timing is everything

The calamitous typhoons put forward two examples of visionary local leadership, one successful, the other a failure, but vindicated by lack of success. Dr. Pamela Cajilig summed up the success in this manner: “What seems to be working for Iloilo is the selection of an optimal mix of methods: spillway (hard infrastructure) + coastal wetland restoration + land use: the spillway’s not crowded with factories and houses. This is more than flood control. This is integrated flood risk management.” Wilfredo Garrido summed up the failure this way: “The unprecedented flooding of Cebu is nature’s revenge against years of uncontrolled development. At the center of it all is Slater Young’s The Rise at Monterrazas, [the] concrete structures [of which] repelled water and directed it toward low-lying barangays … The former mayor, Tomas Osmeña, vetoed the harebrained project when it was just at the planning stage.”

While victory has a hundred fathers, while defeat is an orphan, what accounts for the success in Iloilo and the heartbreaking flooding in Cebu? The building of a winning coalition composed of local and national governments, with civil society and business, seems to be the key.

Rosalie Arcala Hall, in “National–Local Synergies for Development: How a Local Political Machine Delivered Infrastructure Results in Iloilo City,” in the Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, suggests that it can be said of former Sen. Franklin Drilon that his political machine “orchestrated a diverse but astutely networked group of local businesses by involving them in formal participatory planning processes, thereby facilitating approval of big-ticket items, and by influencing bureaucrats from national government agencies to approve the projects.” The result was “robust, institutional, and informal ties between political and economic elites that enabled consensus-building on the virtues of market-driven growth for which infrastructure is key.”

Contrast this with situations where entire sectors are kept out of the mix. Returning to Cebu, Paulo Alcazaren (of Iloilo Esplanade and now Manila fame) pointed out, “In the last decade, there have been several NBS (nature-based solutions) proposals for Cebu rivers by landscape architects and environmental planners, but the DPWH chose to do it their way.” Someone with (former) government experience put it this way: “The DPWH serves as the agent of cynicism. ‘Di pwede ‘yung ganyan from things like bike lanes to bio-drainage to nature-based flood control. They kill innovative proposals to turn around and give money to contractors and politicians.”

The result was SOP, the standard operating procedure that siphoned off billions, leaving either nothing tangible or only a token, nonperforming asset to show for it. Slightly over four months ago, when this whole infrastructure racket blew up, one of the most perilous things about it (for those exposed) was that every time there would be a calamity, the public would be reminded of why it had gotten so furious in the first place, with the addition of even more aggrieved people. The outrage goes beyond directly affected communities, after all: Ulysis Dylan Gruta on Facebook asserts that Project Noah and its maps were bad for business—the dirty kind, because Noah’s maps made corruption harder. If anyone could check online which areas truly needed flood-control projects, then every “drainage improvement” or “river wall” pork barrel would have to make sense.

Public anger being refreshed so often can’t be matched by official actions to do something about it. Reporting in the Asia Sentinel, Tita C. Valderama details the cases to come: The Independent Commission for Infrastructure wants two senators, Joel Villanueva and Jinggoy Estrada, charged with plunder and bribery; the National Bureau of Investigation has recommended corruption charges against Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez; other representatives, and bureaucrats are also facing proceedings to charge them. Valderama writes, the Ombudsman is set to file the first set of charges (but not for plunder), on Nov. 25. Department of Public Works and Highways Secretary Vince Dizon was quoted as saying that of the 60 expected to be charged, “many will spend Christmas behind bars.”

Former Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV has filed plunder charges against Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go, in what his supporters say is an open-and-shut case because of Go’s family and contracts in Davao. The possibility of the arrest and extradition of Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa means the political calculus for everything from ordinary legislation to impeachment is now subject to significant change (the votes needed to convict won’t change; the votes needed to acquit will become much more difficult to achieve). Imagine the nervousness surrounding the possibility of Trillanes filing even more plunder charges: such a case, after all, permits the opening of bank accounts for inspection.

All these suggest the timing of the Iglesia ni Cristo’s forthcoming rally (to preempt the Ombudsman), which is becoming inseparable from allegations of regime change.

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Email: mlquezon3@gmail.com; Twitter: @mlq3