The Great Flood which swept humanity and all life forms on earth was God’s way of washing away the world of its wickedness. Whereas here in the Philippines, it’s a way of making money through wickedness. Submerged in floodwaters, the issue of corruption emerges. Flood control projects proved effective not for its intended purpose but as a financially rewarding venture among involved contractors and officials. They’ve been flooded with opportunities and resources as cash flows. The project is aimed at controlling the surge of kickbacks to rather flow into their pockets. Poor implementation is the very reason such a typical drawback is rather politically patronized as it serves to likewise normalize the “habitual duplicity”. There’s an overflow of “customary double-dealing”. A channel wherein the constituents get to be the “regular patrons” they take for a ride with “cunning precision” for a customer-centric service while the setback-causing substandard project is the opportunity to once again “kick back”. It’s their way of washing away (liquidating) budgets. Yes, like we’re swizzled around to go with the flow, there’s an unWAVEring budget, make it “bad-get” as in make it “bad, get” another…
While among the marginalized who got used to the floodings’ presumed normalcy, it has become a routine of adjusting to the deepening problem with makeshift floaters and quick-evacuation plans. It has become a norm like an accustomed defense mechanism. They’re not Noah having been chosen. They’re more like “no one.” The nobodies. For them however, they’re not subjected to mockery for apparently “building their ark” but deemed resilient, encouraged and stroking their egos for “whatever floats their boat.” At their expense, the Philippines get flooded with a bottomless deluge of corruption. Imagine the Great Flood happening now, you’d see Filipinos in their swimwears with their recreational inflatables engaging in a leisure-enlivened moment before drowning in life’s deeper and murky realizations once it sinks in again.
It’s our seeming nonchalant nature that’s taken advantage of by opportunistic capitalists. But now, these brazen-faced plutocrats are flooded with streams of backlash after PBBM opened the floodgates of awareness via his 4th SONA’s implicative quote, “Mahiya naman kayo!” Apparently “quote” in the act, it opened billions of reasons to have the culprits take responsibility. It likewise presented the deeper flooding of corruption via bureaucratic channels these contractors are cash– err gushing through. Though like calm waters running deep, the public’s whirlpool of thoughts have caused splashing waves of opinions and resentment. A turbulent torrent of animosity is rising. Due to “still waters”, we are STILL flooded with wickedness. Are we “calmly” guilty in allowing these floods to drown us? Be silent no more. Nonetheless, be a silent water that runs deep still yet let us rain on their parade and drown them with deep conscience. Squeeze the frustration out of our drenched faith in humanity. Open our “damned” gates of trust and release from our reservoir of pent up dismay and our “walled up” gullibility they’ve also taken advantage of.
“DAMned.” We’ve been boxed like an optional alternative. It gets opened only for picking when it serves them right. One seepage and it submerges us into a pool of possibilities. An opportunity to emerge from contrasting circumstances. One for survival and the other one for opulence. One is “submerged in ordeal”, the other is swimming in affluence. Flooded with providence, we drown in silence or they drown in loud extravagance. Sinking in insufficiency vs siphoned off by greediness. Will these money-grubbing contractors be siphoned off as well from liability by greedy officials likewise drawing off a clean slate for accountability. Will there be an ark that’ll separate and save the lives worth saving though? As callous as they’ve turned out, no amount of flood water can exfoliate their thick faces…
Dictated by particular priorities, we hang on to our respective “arks”. If we even have a ship, it’s “hard ship”. Whereas for the “privileged”, their watercraft is for “fluid craftiness” (Overflowing Astuteness). As “OA” as that may be, look how they turn it around ~ “AO”. Make it Appear Optimistic with credible pro-God company names… Take note of Alpha & Omega General Contractor and Development Corp., St. Timothy Construction, St. Gerrard Construction, other than all three are “religious in concept”, all have links to and contracts tied to national flood control projects. All three are also linked to husband and wife-contractor-owners Curlee and Sarah Discaya. Having watched their image-building feature for an episode through Julius Babao’s YouTube channel, there were considerable indications of moral turpitude. It was intended to rouse the consumerist nature in people. It was produced and founded on a materialistic context. In one segment, it was insensitive of them to swagger about the reason (not even for the car’s transporting purpose but) for buying on a whim one of their fleet of luxury vehicles just because it’s equipped with a built-in UMBRELLA. For all its cynical inducement considering how that impractical luxury for THEIR comfort and convenience which they’ve “earned” from an anomalous deal was perpetrated at the expense of commoners who aren’t even equipped with sufficient rain protection if only to overemphasize the stark contrast and irony of it all…
In the current Senate Blue Ribbon hearing tackling the Flood Control issue, it has been raised how St. Gerrard Construction was blacklisted already for tax anomalies yet they still get to work on such government big ticket projects under a different company. So many loopholes there… Likewise admitted was the actuality of ghost projects. A contractor’s paid-up capital is also a considerable factor, thus, they have to corroborate how fiscally capable they are. It’s just ironic how St Gerrard (the Discayas) had issues while showing off their riches as validation for their authorized capital. Having that extra mundane to BRANDish for their branding, was it rather “extra mandate” to “drive as bribe” instead of settling it right, tax and all? Senator Zubiri likewise addressed the elephant in the room being the vetted yet mangled budget most likely getting “fixed” by the “mammoth behind the room”. How can we then address the “involved elephant” when the pigs and crocodiles are the actual pets of the mammoth to whom bribes are taken home for the agreed fixed amount… Consequently, leaving the project’s actual cost as what gets adjusted up till what’s left is for a substandard to “ghosted” projects. That, once again, leaves the public at the losing end. Are these the kind of animals in pairs that get secured in the ark?
Oh no. They may crowd-in in our thoughts and “aspirations” about how comfortably warm and dry they are in their luxury ark (err kar err car err… ok Rolls Royce Cullinan geez! They don’t even have to use that umbrella…) but they won’t huddle with the crowd. Whereas for us nobodies, each being a “no one”, we have our “no one’s ark” under the rain ~ the roof tops, piled up wood planks, empty plastic containers/gallons and whatnot, evacuation centers, etc. Then, they’ll patronize us with goodie bags, medical kits, alms and donations out of their “filled up pockets with blessings” which we help them fill, as well as feel… Us, on the contrary, we’re cold and numb. No one err no won~der, we’re silent…