COMMENTARY: Manila's woes

Flooded streets, stalled vehicles, stranded passengers, and children carried to their deaths by the rampaging waters...this is the picture of a city that has just collapsed under its weight. Manila is totally run-down. The Manila of Nick Joaquin's dreams (he poetically sang of "Manila, my Manila") has turned into a nightmare. 

The problem is that there is just no political will to take the necessary steps to rescue Manila from the precipice. We have talked several times about transferring national offices away from Manila -- but there has really been no meaningful move in that direction. There may be token constructions of extension offices, but the executives on the top-echelon will not move to the provinces. 

We know that no matter how wide we make the streets, if we do not stem the outrageous sale of cars especially to those who can afford two or three to outwit the coding system, then our woes will multiply, not ebb. 

PNoy cannot blame GMA...he has six years to fix things if he thought them broken. Nothing of significance really happened. 

Even owners of colleges and universities should be held in check: moving from Manila to Rockwell does not solve problems.  Making universities and colleges in provinces regionally (ASEAN) competitive will de-clog the the choked thoroughfares of the university belt.  But we just don't have the will to take these steps. So we continue wallowing in our stupidity as we wallow in the fetid wates of these perennial floods of Manila.

La Mesa Dam is a perfect metaphor for official ineptitude in the Philippines.  Not too long ago, dam-keepers complained that there was not enough water. They danced the rain-dance to ask that heaven's gates be opened. And now that there is a generous amount of water coming from the heavens, the implacable people of La Mesa are complaining -- this time, that there is too much water. But how stupid can they -- we -- be.  

This cycle of water lack -- water excess is almost an annual phenomenon.  Have we not devised a system of storing the excess in the rainy season to release when our cisterns run dry?

It is interesting that we have devised clever systems of impounding funds under the DAP scheme and allowed legislators to take part in budget implementation -- something they have no business involving themselves in -- which is why PDAF has been one of the country's most unforgettable scandals.  And yet, we seem to be entranced by our yearly mono-polar disorder: crying in our hot summers because we do not have enough water, and crying again in the rainy season because we have too much of it.  

Fr. Ranhilio Callangan Aquino is the dean of the Graduate School of Law of San Beda College.