Columnist recalls flooded rental home, blames officials over flood-control projects

A columnist for the Mindanao Times, writing in the column "Honoring My Mother," uses a personal memory of a flood-prone rental house to argue that corrupt politicians are to blame for flood-control projects that never get built.

The writer recalls renting a walled house in a subdivision almost thirty years ago with a partner and a baby on the way. At first the place seemed ideal. It was quiet and affordable, it had a small fishpond, a grotto and a hut in the yard, and its tap water came from mountain streams stored in subdivision tanks. The couple lived simply, with little furniture, and made friends with their neighbours.

That changed when the rains came. According to the column, floodwater did not enter through the doors. Instead, brown water rose from the bathroom floor and toilet. Runoff from the hills behind the house overran the drainage at the back and flowed through the septic tank. The writer describes mopping mountain soil out of the house each morning after heavy rain until the family eventually moved out.

The columnist says the memory comes back whenever friends post about flooding during heavy downpours, and declines to romanticise what the column calls nature's wrath.

The writer argues that blame should go to dishonest politicians who, according to the column, dream up flood-control projects that never materialise and instead turn into "suitcases of money" for themselves.